《顺手牵羊》出处、故事、英文翻译、注释

16.顺手牵羊

shùn shǒu qiān yáng

【出处】《三十六计》第十二计：微隙^[1]在所必乘，微利在所必得。少阴，少阳^[2]。《 黄绣球》第三回：“这一天见来的很是不少，黄通理更代为踌躇，怕的是越来越多，容不下去，而且难免有趁火打劫，顺手牵羊的事。”元代尚仲贤《单鞭夺槊》第二折：“是我把右手带住马，左手揪着他眼扎毛，顺手牵羊一般牵他回来了。”

【成语故事】汉高祖元年，刘邦为了避免和项羽的精锐部队作战，决定撤退到汉中。在那以后的几年里，自称“西楚霸王”的项羽厚待自己的亲信，排挤了一些贤臣和才俊。有个叫田荣的将领，由于不是项羽的亲信，没有受到重用，也没有享受到封王封爵的待遇。出于嫉妒和不满，田荣决定反叛，便起来反抗项羽，他先赶走了齐王田都，然后杀掉了胶东王，并自立为王。后来，他又联合彭越，杀掉了济北王田安。项羽得知后非常生气，立即率领大队人马攻打田荣，一心想灭了田荣。此时的项羽正在全力攻打田荣，根本没有余力去顾及西部的刘邦。刘邦得知项羽攻打田荣的消息，无暇顾及其他地方，便派了手下大将韩信率领大队人马攻下了项羽的三秦属地，乘势扩张自己的势力范围，严重削弱了项羽的势力，为最后彻底打败项羽、统一中国、建立汉王朝奠定了坚实的基础。

【寓意】该成语原意是指在路过的时候看见了别人家放养的羊无人看管就顺手牵走据为己有。现喻指趁机行事，毫不费力地取走他人的财物，获得某种平常要花大气力才能得到的东西。也喻指趁势获得利益，或者乘机利用别人。

顺手牵羊
To Gain the Handy Benefit

16.To Gain the Handy Benefit

【Idiomatic Story】In the first year of Emperor Gao-zhu in the Han Dynasty，the Emperor LIU Bang decided to fall back upon Han-zhong so as to avoid the confrontation with the crack troops of XIANG Yu.Then XIANG Yu self-proclaimed as the Overlord of Western Chu.In the following years，XIANG Yu munificently favored his loyal followers，and some virtuous talents were supplanted.One general officer named TIAN Rong who was not the loyal follower had not been put in an important position，and he had not shared the privileges as the Lord and peerage.

That injustice caused complaints and resentments of TIAN Rong and drove him to revolt against XIANG Yu.He proclaimed himself as the Lord after successfully driving the Qi Lord TIAN Du away and killing the Jiao-dong Lord.Then he joined hands with PENG Yue and killed the Ji-bei Lord TIAN An.

XIANG Yu was enraged when he got the news of TIAN Rong's revolt，so he commanded a large army to attack TIAN Rong.XIANG Yu had launched a full-scale attack on TIAN Rong in order to wipe out TIAN Rong and his troops at one stroke.

When LIU Bang got the news，he ordered General HAN Xin command troops to rapidly take XIANG Yu's dependencies in San-qin by the chance of XIANG Yu having no time to attend to them.LIU Bang took advantage of the favorable situation to expand his sphere，power and influence.It had seriously weakened the power and influence of XIANG Yu and had firmly grounded for the unification of the country and the foundation of the Han Dynasty by completely defeating XIANG Yu at last.

【Implied Meaning】 It originally means to take the sheep away incidentally when one finds it is out of the control of its owner.It is often used to refer to getting unexpected benefits or gaining something with a little effort by taking the advantageous chance.

【注释】

[1]隙：漏洞，破绽。

[2]少阴：极小的破绽。少阳：极小的胜利。释义：敌方微小的漏洞必须利用，敌方微小的利益也必须获得。变敌方的小疏忽为我方的小胜利。