《树上开花》出处、故事、英文翻译、注释

22.树上开花

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【出处】《三十六计》第二十九计：借局布势，力小势大；鸿^[1]渐^[2]于陆，其羽可用为仪^[3]也。清代李宝嘉《官场现形记》第17 回：“这件事参出去，胡统领一面，多少总可以生法，还可以‘树上开花’，不过借我们这点，当做药线，好处在后头。”清代曾朴《孽海花》第二十二回：“兄弟原只带了十二万银子进京，后来添出六万，力量本来就不济的了。亏了永丰庄肯担承这宗款子，虽觉得累点儿，那么树上开花，到底儿总有结果。”

【成语故事】三国时期，刘备手下曾有一位有勇有谋的大将，他就是张飞。当年，刘备和曹操起初的几次交战都以失败告终。自从和刘备一起奋斗的刘表死后，刘备在荆州的势力变得很弱。就在这时，曹操带领军队攻打刘备，刘备只能慌忙地率领荆州的军民退守到江陵。但是，由于跟着撤退的老百姓人数太多，撤退的速度变得非常缓慢。曹操的军队追到当阳时，和刘备的军队打了一仗，刘备又被打败了，不得不继续撤退，糟糕的是，他妻子和儿子在乱军中被冲散了。但是没有办法，刘备只能带领军民继续撤退，叫张飞跟在他们后面阻拦曹军的追兵。当时，张飞只有二十多个骑兵，怎么打得过曹操的大队人马？不过，那张飞既不害怕，也不慌张，他突然想到了一个办法。他马上命令这二十名骑兵都到树林里去，砍下很多树枝，绑在马后，然后骑着马在树林中飞快地跑圈。张飞自己则骑着黑马，手里横拿着长矛，一个人威风凛凛地站在长板坡的桥上。追兵赶到时，看到张飞这个怪怪的样子，又看见桥东树林里扬起了很多尘土，害怕对方在树林中埋伏了士兵，不敢贸然前进。就这样，张飞靠这仅有的二十多名骑兵，成功阻挡了追击的曹兵，让刘备和荆州的军民得以安全撤退。

【寓意】该成语原意是指树上本来没有花，但可以用彩色绸子剪成花朵粘在树上，让人真假难辨。在军事战略上，是指当自己的力量薄弱时，可以凭借某种因素或者别人的势力来制造假象，使自己看起来很强大，以此虚张声势，威慑敌人。现常常用来喻指投资本钱以赚取利润，将本求利，别有收获。

树上开花
Taking Advantage to Show Power

22.To Take Advantage to Show Power

【Idiomatic Story】 In the Three Kingdoms period，the King of the Shu Kingdom LIU Bei had a senior general named ZHANG Fei who was famous for his bravery and ingenuity.In the first confronting wars with CAO Cao who was the King of the Wei Kingdom，LIU Bei had been defeated.After LIU Biao's death，LIU Bei lost his supports from cooperating partner to become weaker when he and his army stationed in Jin-zhou.

Just then，CAO Cao commanded his troops to attack LIU Bei，and LIU Bei was forced to retreat to Jiang-ling with a large number of local people which resulted in slow action of the retreat.Unfortunately，the pursuing troops of the Wei Kingdom caught up with them in Dang-yang，LIU Bei was defeated again，and LIU Bei's wives and son had been dispersed in the confused situation.LIU Bei had no choice but to command his troops with the local people going on their retreat without his wives and son，and he ordered general ZHANG Fei to give cover and block the troops of the Wei Kingdom.

ZHANG Fei was left with about twenty cavalrymen to carry on the mission.How could he block the large troops of the Wei Kingdom? At such a situation，ZHANG Fei kept calm and then a fresh idea flashed upon his mind.He immediately ordered his soldiers to go to the nearby woods to cut down many branches from the trees，fasten them onto the tails of their horses，and then speed their horses in the woods to raise dust.ZHANG Fei himself stood riding on his Black Horse at the end of the Chang-ban-po Bridge with a lance in hand.

When the pursuing troops of the Wei Kingdom reached the Chang-ban-po Bridge，they found only ZHANG Fei himself stood awfully riding on his horse at the end of the bridge with a lance in hand and saw the heavy dust in the woods.They worried to fall into an ambush，so they dared not to go any further hastily.

In such a way，ZHANG Fei successfully stopped the large pursuing troops of the Wei Kingdom with his twenty cavalrymen.They successfully covered the large number of soldiers and local people to retreat.

【Implied Meaning】It originally means to put the artificial flowers on the tree to make it confused or undistinguishable.In military strategy it often refers to pretending to be powerful by taking advantage of some other factors to deter the enemy.Now it also means to get profits and unexpected harvest for an investment.

【注释】

[1]鸿：鸿雁鸟。

[2]渐：慢慢（向陆地接近）。

[3]仪：仪态，气势。