《偷梁换柱》出处、故事、英文翻译、注释

9.偷梁换柱

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【出处】《三十六计》第二十五计：频更其阵，抽其劲旅，待其自败，而后乘之，曳^[1]其轮^[2]也。清代曹雪芹《红楼梦》第九十七回：“偏偏凤姐想出一条偷梁换柱之计，自己也不好过潇湘馆来，竟未能少尽姊妹之情。真真可怜可叹！”

【成语故事】秦始皇称帝后，自以为身体还不错，一直没有立太子。当时，宫廷内存在两个势力强大的政治集团：一个是长子扶苏的蒙恬集团，另一个是幼子胡亥的赵高集团。长子扶苏为人正派，在全国享有很高的声誉。秦始皇本来就是想立扶苏为太子的，为了锻炼长子，他派扶苏到著名的军事将领蒙恬那里去接受锻炼。而幼子胡亥早就被宠坏了，他在宦官赵高的教唆下，只知道吃喝玩乐。公元前210年，秦始皇突然一病不起，他知道自己的日子不多了。于是，他连忙召见丞相李斯，要李斯传达秘密指令：立扶苏为太子。当时，大臣赵高掌管玉玺和起草诏书的事。但赵高早就有野心，他看准了这是一次难得的机会，于是他故意扣押皇帝的诏书，以等待行动的最好时机。几天后，秦始皇驾崩了。李斯怕太子回来前，国家政治局面会有所动荡，所以没有把皇帝驾崩的消息对外发布。赵高知道这个事情的缘由，立即找来李斯并告诉他：“李斯，皇上写给扶苏的信，一直还扣在我这里。现在，究竟立谁为太子，就是你我决定的事了。”赵高看李斯非常犹豫，狡猾的他又对李斯分析了其中的利害关系，他说：“你想，如果扶苏做了皇帝，他一定会重用蒙恬，到那个时候，你李斯的宰相位置还能坐得稳吗？”这些话说得李斯非常心动，于是，二人合谋，制造了假诏书，并赐死了扶苏，就连蒙恬也被他们杀害了。在这个故事中，赵高没用一兵一卒，就把昏庸无能的胡亥扶持为秦二世，为他自己今后的专权打下了基础，同时也为秦朝的灭亡埋下了祸根。

【寓意】该成语原意是指偷偷地用劣质的材料来替换承受重力的梁柱，使得原来牢固的建筑变得脆弱，容易受损。现常常用来喻指暗中玩弄手法，以假代真，以劣代优，更改事物的本质和内容，以达到蒙混欺骗的目的。

偷梁换柱
A Secret Business Deal

9.A Secret Business Deal

【Idiomatic Story】Emperor Qin-Shi-Huang had not selected crown prince from his sons since he founded the Qin Dynasty，because he thought he was still very vigorous and healthy.But two political groups had formed，one was the MENG Party for the eldest prince Fu-su，the other was the ZHAO Party for the youngest prince Hu-hai.Between the two princes，the eldest prince Fu-su had earned his fame and reputation from both officials and common people by his honesty and decency.He was arranged by Emperor Qin-Shi-Huang to undertake training under the famous General MENG Tian as the future successor of the throne.However，the youngest prince Hu-hai could do nothing but to seek pleasures，because he had been spoiled by the excessive favors and abetment of the royal eunuch ZHAO Gao.

In 210 BC，Emperor Qin-Shi-Huang fell ill.And he knew that his days were to be numbered，so he called in the Prime Minister LI Si urgently to instruct him to convey the secret imperial edict for selecting the eldest prince Fusu as the crown prince.At that time，ZHAO Gao was in charge of writing the imperial decrees and keeping the imperial seal.Therefore，ZHAO Gao knew it was a good chance to achieve his ambition，so he detained the imperial edict for the right moment.

A few days later，Emperor Qin-Shi-Huang died.The Prime Minister LI Si intentionally delayed to release the news，because he worried that something must happen before prince Fu-su came back.When ZHAO Gao learned the reason that LI Si kept the news of Emperor Qin-Shi-Huang's death in the dark，he went to meet LI Si，and said，“I haven't publicly announced the imperial edict.Now you and I can make the final decision for the selected crown prince.” Finding the hesitation of LI Si，ZHAO Gao began to illustrate the interests for him，and said，“If prince Fu-su has succeed the throne，he will put MENG Tian in an important position，can you still keep to your position as the Prime Minister then?” LI Si was completely persuaded by what ZHAO Gao said，so he joined to make a false imperial edict with ZHAO Gao.They crowned prince Hu-hai the king.and ordered prince Fu-su to commit suicide and put MENG Tian to death at last.They had laid the first stone for the downfall of the Qin Dynasty.

【Implied Meaning】It originally means to change the supporting beams and pillars secretly with the shoddy supporters.Now it often used to refer to the substitution with the fake or poor ones secretly for deception to achieve the expected effects.

【注释】

[1]曳：牵引，引诱。

[2]轮：更替。