《论功行赏》出处、故事、英文翻译、注释

31.论功行赏

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【出处】《韩非子·八说》：“计功而行赏，程能而授事。”《三国志·顾谭传》：“时论功行赏，以为驻敌之功大，退敌之功小。”《隋书·苏威传》卷四十一：“及大业末年，尤多征役，至于论功行赏，威每承望风旨，辄寝其事。”

【成语故事】刘邦消灭项羽后，终于平定了天下，如愿以偿地当上了皇帝，即历史上有名的“汉高祖”。登上皇位后，他就要给那些战将评定功绩，根据他们功绩的大小给予封赏。刘邦宣布：“所有大臣中，应属萧何的功劳最大，因此我要封他为赞侯，给予他最多的封户。”但是，群臣们对此很不满，辩解说：“大王，平阳侯曹参在攻打城市、夺取土地的过程中，身受七十处创伤，我等认为他的功劳最大，他应该排在第一位。” 这时，一位名叫鄂千秋的大臣把刘邦想讲但还没有讲的话讲了出来：“众位大臣的主张虽然有道理，但是也不全对。曹参虽然有在各地打仗、夺取土地的功劳，但是，这也只是一部分事实而已。还记得当年大王与楚军相持五年的战斗吗？这期间，萧何常常派遣军队补充前线，难能可贵的是，这些事情都不是大王下令让他做的。我记得当年汉军与楚军在荥阳打了数年的仗，军中没有了口粮，萧何便用车马和船只运来粮食。恕我斗胆，我想说的是，如今，即使没有上百个曹参，我们汉室也不会有什么损失，但是，没有了一个萧何，可以说，就没有我们汉朝的今天。因此，我觉得萧何应该排第一位，曹参排第二位。”刘邦听完，非常肯定鄂千秋的话，大臣们也不好再反对，于是确定了萧何为第一位，特许他可以带着剑穿着鞋上殿。另外，上朝时他可以不按照朝廷的礼节小步快走，而是按照自己的步伐自然走动。而曹参排在了第二位。其他功臣也都根据各自的贡献得到了相应的封赏。

【寓意】该成语原意是指古时君主在征战胜利建国后对有功之臣进行封赏，通常是按照各自功劳的大小来确定封赏的等次。现喻指根据个人或者组织的贡献大小而给予一定数量或者额度的奖励，以鼓励和促进其后续的工作。

论功行赏
To Reward According to the Contributions

31.To Reward According to the Contributions

【Idiomatic Story】Having defeated the Warlord XIANG Yu in the Chu-Han Competing Wars，LIU Bang founded the Han Dynasty and became the Emperor who was known as the Gao-zu Emperor of the Han Dynasty in Chinese history.

After taking the throne，LIU Bang prepared to give the senior generals and other military officers rewarding according to their achievements and contributions.

LIU Bang declared that，“XIAO He should be given the best rewarding because of his valuable contributions.And I will grant him Lord of Peerage and give him the largest subinfeudation.” But this aroused objections from the ministers and chancellors.They thought the Ping-yang Lord CAO Can should deserve the first rank because he had made the greatest contributions because he had been wounded for seventy times in the battles.”

When the discussion reached a deadlock，a chancellor named E Qian-qiu spoke out what LIU Bang wanted to say，“My dear fellows，what you said sounds reasonable，but you are only half right.Actually，CAO Can has contributed a lot in the battles，but this is only part of the cause in founding the Empire.Do you remember the past five years of the mutual confrontation with the Chu State? In the period，XIAO He regularly sent the newly recruited soldiers to the front line of battles for the force supplement.But all these were actively done by XIAO He himself without any instruction of our lord.And I still remembered the years resisting against the Chu troops in Xing-yang，it was XIAO He who delivered supplies for us with carts and boats.Frankly speaking，little would have been changed if we had not had the generals like CAO Can.But we would have no Han Empire at all if we haven't had XIAO He.Therefore，I think XIAO He deserve the first rank and CAO Can the second.”

Upon hearing the words of E Qian-qiu，LIU Bang nodded in agreement.And other chancellors found no more excuse for refutation.Therefore，XIAO He was placed in the first rank and was franchised to enter the Royal Hall walking in natural steps in shoes and with sword regardless of strict etiquette.CAO Can was ranking in the second position，and others were also rewarded according to their contributions.

【Implied Meaning】It originally means that in ancient times the emperor tried to reward the heroes by evaluating their devotions to the kingdom，especially for the heroic generals after the foundation of the new kingdom.Now it is often used to refer to the rewarding to those who have made some achievements according to their contributions for stimulating the future work.