Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Drums played a very important role in any wars.
The beats of the drums in battlefield redered the
soldiers with power,
the courage and the unstoppable will to fight,
when the drums were struck,
even the weaker team had the valor to fight
the stronger team and defeat them.
This is the exact implication presented by
the idiom "at one fling".
Hi everyone!
Learn Chinese idioms, grasp the essence of Chinese,
know Chinese history and appreciate Chinese culture.
Welcome to learning Steven's Idiom Story.
I will show you the idiom of "Yi Gu Zuo Qi" today.
This idiom's English name is "At one fling".
"At one fling" is from the cold weapon age in China,
when both sides beat the drums in attacks at war to
encourage soldiers to keep up high morale in battles.
It means that relaxation and laziness must be
avoided whatever we do.
We must put in all of our effort at the beginning when we are
in high spirits and try our best towards our goals.
In contrary,
if we start to chase our goals when our bravery and strength
is fading away, we will fail.
At one fling derives from the story of the
military strategies of Cao gui,
which was recorded in Zuo Zhuan.
Zuo Zhuan is a historical annal of ancient China
that records historical events in detail.
It has 35 volumes in total.
The full name of Zuo Zhuan is Historian Zuo's Annals
of Spring and Autumn.
It was called Zuo Zhuan after Han Dynasty and it illustrated
for The Spring and Autumn Annals.
Zuo Zhuan is a masterpiece of strategies
at war and historiography.
It records many widely known stories which are
full of philosophical thoughts and
at one fling is the one of them.
The story took place in the Spring and Autumn Period
in ancient China,
which was more than 2500 years from now
and China wasn't a unified country at that time.
The territories that separated the country were
frequently at war with each other.
Qi State and Lu State located in the province of Shandong
and the army of Qi invaded Lu.
Qi was more powerful than Lu and that
was an unequal flight.
However, the weaker state Lu overcame the stronger state Qi
and defeated Qi utterly.
According to Zuo Zhuan,
the victory of Lu was attributed to the excellent
strategies from Cao Gui,
who was a famous military theorist of Lu.
At that time,
the ruler of Qi sent the main force to invade Lu.
There were battles between the two states before and Lu
was defected in every time.
Lord of Lu and all the court were frightened when
they heard about the news
and they didn't know what to do.
Cao Gui, who lived in seclusion,
asked to see Lord of Lu and offered the strategies
to fight against the army of Qi on his own initiative.
Lord of Lu asked Cao Gui that could we defeat Qi
which was much stronger than us?
Cao Gui asked the Lord in reply that
what have you done for your people to convince them
to fight against the enemies with you, my lord?
Lord Lu said, even though
I hadn't fulfilled my responsibilities,
I thought about my people all the time.
I never enjoy the benefit of food and clothes alone,
I shared them with the people all the time.
Cao Gui said it was very good,
but the people wouldn't follow you to fight
wholeheartedly with such little favors.
Lord Lu replied that I was concerned about
the difficulties of my people all the time
and I made investigations by myself when
there was important case.
I never award anyone in favoritism,
never add punishment by my abomination and
I made decisions according to the truth.
Cao Gui was very happy and said,
we would see who is the winner if you could really do that,
Lord Lu asked, in what way could we defeat Qi?
Cao Gui said, we should never stick to the fix strategy,
we had to adjust our strategy according the
the changing situations at war.
I would lead the army to fight against the
enemies with my lord and offered my strategies
according to the real situation.
Lord Lu thought that Cao Gui was reasonable,
so he led the army with Cao Gui together.
The two armies deployed the troops for battle
in Chang Shao, which was Qu Fu in Shandong province.
The General Bao Shuya of Qi underestimated
the army of Lu because everything was successful,
he ordered to hit the drums to attack against Lu.
The army of Qi mounted the charge at Lu
with loud shouts in support.
Lord Lu intended to hit the drums to fight
back when he saw this.
Cao Gui stopped him immediately
and asked Lord Zhuang to make
the order of upholding the position.
Anyone who moved and shouted to fight without the
permission would be executed.
The army of Qi couldn't break Lu's battle array
because Lu didn't move at all and Qi had to withdraw.
General Bao Shuya ordered to hit the drums again to
to attack against Lu army,
bu the army of Lu still didn' move and
Qi had to withdraw again.
General Bao Shuya thought that Lu was afraid
because they didn't fight back twice,
then he made the third order of hitting the drums to attack.
At that time, Cao Gui told Lord Lu decisively
to hit the drums and mounted the charge.
The soldiers fight against Qi as brave as lions with
the support of the inspiring roll of drums.
The army of Qi scattered and fled,
throwing away their shields and armors.
Seeing this, Lord Lu intended to order
for pursuing the attack,
but Cao Gui held it back.
He carefully checked the trails
left by the wheels of Qi's chariots
on the ground when they fled,
then stood on the chariot and watched the fleeing
army of Qi for a while before asking Lord Lu
to order for pursuing the attack in full force.
he army of Lu pursued the attack for dozens of miles,
killed and captured many Qi's soldiers
and seized countless weapons.
Lu was the final winner and this was
the famous battle of Chang shao in Chinese history.
Lu won the battle by their weaker military power.
Lord Lu asked Cao Gui why he didn't order
to attack until Qi hit the drums the third time.
Cao Gui answered, the morale was the key and
hitting the drums was for supporting the morale.
The army had a high moral in the first beat,
but the moral faded at the second beat
and it totally disappeared at the third beat.
However, we attack at one fling with our highest morale,
so we defeat them.
Lord Lu asked,
why didn't you order to pursue the attack
when the army of Qi fled?
Cao Gui answered,
the true mingled with the false at the battle,
so we had to be aware of the deceitfulness
even if the army of Qi fled.
Lord Lu admired Cao Gui and said,
you were the real strategist!
He appointed him as a honorable official
who was in charge of military
and national defense,
which was equal to the current
ministry of national defense.
This story was recorded into Zuo Zhuan and became
the derivation of at one fling.
So we all need to seize the chance
and learn the Chinese idioms at one fling.
Thank you for watching, see you next time!