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三十六计英文版:献给海外中华二代

(2011-03-07 22:24:51) 下一个

献给被西方教育洗脑了的海外第二代太循规韬距的中华儿女们


 


三十六计


 


1.      瞒天过海


 


“Cheat the sky and get through the ocean”


 


Produce deceiving phenomena to hide the real intention to mislead the enemy, as you carry out your real mission safely and without being found.


 


2.      围魏救赵


 


Encircle the Wei to save the Zhao”


 


The country Qi want to rescue country Zhao, which was being attacked heavily by the enemy country Wei. Sun-Pin, Qi’s King’s adviser and brilliant strategist, decided that instead of sending army to Zhao to fight Wei’s army, he send army to encircle Wei’s capital city, which is weakly guarded because Wei send most of its army to attack Zhao. This really pushed Wei’s button, and Wei has to withdraw her army back home to save its only capital.


 


The point is to avoid huge confrontation and attack the weak point.


 


3.      借刀杀人


 


“Borrow some one’s knife to kill your enemy”


 


       If your enemy got other enemy besides you. Try to use/persuade the “other enemy” to defeat your enemy. An economic and little-energy-consuming way.


 


4.      以逸待劳


 


Rest and waiting for the charging but tired enemy coming up attacking you”


 


Unless your strength is way stronger than your enemy, usually taking a defensive stance has better chance to win because you are not consumed as much as the offensive one charging at you.


 


5.      趁火打劫


 


“When the house is on fire, its good time to root”


 


When your enemy is in crisis or chaos, its good time to attack.


 


 


6.      声东击西


 


“make a lot noise to make the enemy know you are attacking the east side, than you actually attack the west side.”


 


It’s a widely used tactic in military with millions of examples can be cided.


 


7.      无中生有


 


“Produce  things out of nothing”


 


This is usually talking about spreading rumors and propaganda. It can be very powerful and cost very little. Rumors and words out of mouth can kill people. Most recent example is the fall of Tiger Wood. Of course he deserves it. 


 


8.      明修俴道,暗渡陈仓


 


“You openly building the road for launching the war, you secretly sneak through other road “Chen-Chang” to attack.”


 


Liu-Ban, who established the Han Dynasty, was going to attack his enemy Sian-Yu from Shi-Chuan province. In order to fool the enemy, he openly start building road from Shi-Chuan to the outside apparently preparing for the attack, which will take long time to finish. In secret, he swiftly attacked Sian-Yu from the other secret road “Chen-Chang”.


 


9.      隔岸观火


 


“Watching the enemy’s camp on fire from the other side of the river with easy”


 


When there is crisis, or situation is chaotic or complicated, you may want to choose to not be involved and take an easy stance, waiting for your chance.


 


10.  笑里藏刀


 


“In the smile, a knife is hidden”


 


Really evil people will be smiling at you while thinking about ways to ruin you.


 


An example is the Pirl Harbor. The day before the Pirl Harbor, the Japanese Foreign Minister was in Whasington, trying every way to convince the US that Japan finally have a change of her heart that they want to make peace and compromise with the US. So the US will be caught unprepared the next day.


 


11.  小不忍则乱大谋


 


“If you don’t swallow small things when situation needs you to, you will mass up the big strategic plan”


 


A life is meaningful when you have a mission, a goal to fight for. To achieve your long term goal, at times you have to tolerate dislikes, and swallow the unbearable. If you have real passion for your mission, you can do it! “大丈夫能曲能伸”


(A great man is able to curl up as well as strike out) is another way to say it.


 


12.  13. 打草惊蛇


 


“Beat the bush to disturb the snake out”


 


To understand your enemy or rival is important. Some times you produce a situation  so your rival/enemy will act (give a show), and you learn your enemy better. When you know your enemy better, you have better chance defeat him.


 


14, 15. 调虎离山


 


“Make the tiger leave the mountain”


 


When tiger is in a mountain, he is powerful. But if he is in a lane, he looses power and can be mocked by a dog. A way to defeat your enemy is to make him leave the ideal environment/place and he will loose his power or strength.


 


16. 欲擒故纵


 


“In order to seize /arrest him, you let him loose first”


 


Tricky people in power often play this trick. They pretend to be very agreeable, easy going and neglecting. He than watch all your wrong-doing. Than he will be able to use the evidence and acuse you. 


 


 


 


17. 18. 擒贼擒王


 


“To seize the gang, seize the head of the gang first”


 


The leader of the enemy is the most critical one you want to wipe out in order to desolve your enemies.


 


 


 


19. 釜底抽薪


 


“Instead of putting out the fire on stove, you take away the wood burning in the stove”


 


To defeat your enemy, you don’t engage in direct confrontation, you take away your enemy’s power or the underline mechanism that makes your enemy powerful.


 


20. 混水摸鱼


 


“catch the fish in the cloudy water”


 


Chaotic and disastrous situation is not always bad for a smart person. You can take the opportunity that every body is confused or too busy or neglecting to get what you want.


 


21. 金蝉脱壳


 


“The golden beetle peal her outfit shell/skin and come out as a new beatle” 


 


This idiom is often used to describe some one who secretly working on getting out/escape by keeping the appearance unchanged on the surface to hide his real intention of escaping.


 


23. 远交近攻


 


“Make friends with distant country who has no major conflict of interest with you, so you gain more strength to attack the neighboring enemy”


 


A famous strategy used by many nations over and over. One example is when China had worse and worse relation with Soviet Union, Mao decided to open diplomatic road to the US. US feels the same need to defeat the Soviet communists. So came Nixon and Kissinger to China. This directly contribute to eventual collapse of Soviet Union.


 


26. 指桑骂楑


 


“finger point at plant Suan and actually hinting at cursing the plant kui”


 


A political/diplomatic trick. You appear to be criticizing some one, but every body knows you are actually hinting at criticizing some one else.


 


 


27. 假痴不癫


 


“pretend to become insane, schizophrenic”


 


During 春秋战国,孙膑 was persecuted by his own jealous schoolmate  庞涓 in many different ways. He was trapped in the country Wei. Eventually he as to use the last trick: pretend to become totally insane/schizophrenic. He performed so well that he convinced 庞涓 that he is indeed insane. And 庞涓 no more keep an eye on him. And he got a chance to escape the country Wei. 孙膑 later became military adviser for the King of country Qi and defeated 庞涓。 


 


28。过河拆桥


 


“After you crossed the river via the bridge, you destroy the bridge”


 


Some people can be so mean. After they finished using you, they may sell you for pennies.


 


 31. 美人计


 


“The trick of using the beautiful women”


So many heroes in history can conquer any thing but can not conquer them selves against the temptation of beautiful woman.


 


During 春秋战国,the King of 越国 (very weak) bribed the King of 吴国 (very strong) with 3 things: 1. The most beautiful woman in Chinese history 西施,2.  biggest and tallest wood they found on earth as a gift to 吴国 so the King will building the largest mansion on earth, consuming all the materials of his country, and 3. Offering rice seeds to country Wu which had a poor harvest and no seed to plant for next year. But the seeds offered were cooked and only appear normal. The country Wu as a result had no harvest the next year. With these 3 simple tricks, 越国 made 吴国 weak, and conquered it the following year.


 


32. 空城计


 


“The trick of an empty town”


 


三国时代,诸葛亮 was famous for taking a lot of risks very smart and carefully. His name is now a synonym of wisdom in China.


 


Once he happen to have very small number of soldiers with him surveying a small town. It happen that 司马懿,曹操’s general was near by and got the news. The general’s army over number’s Zu-Ge-Lian’s and surrounded the town. It was very critical moment. Zu-Ge-Lian ordered to open all the gates of the town, asked all the people and soldiers be calm, sweeping floors and continue trading in the market. Zu-Ge-Liang then sat on the top of the wall of the front gate, playing music instrument 古筝 very calm and beautifully. 司马懿 got very suspicious that there must be an ambush in the town waiting for him, because he know that Zu-Ge-Liang has been always a very careful and calculated who many battles he has lost to. The general ordered an immediate retreat. Zu-Ge-Liang laughed and escaped in time.


 


33. 反间计


 


“The trick of making enemy suspicious among them sleves”


 


An example. 三国时代,周瑜 warmly entertained the messenger from 曹操,who is also his old classmate. Zhou-Yu pretend to be very drunk and invited the messiger to his own bed room to sleep. The messenger thought he got a chance. He found a letter from Zhou-Yu’s desk from 2 of Cao-Cao’s generals who are the best in battles on water. The letter said they will find a chance to kill Cao-Cao. It’s a fake letter and a set up. The messenger sneak back to Cao-Cao’s camp the same night. Cao-Cao saw the letter, got very angry and killed the 2 general of his own who are good in fight on water. This contributed to Cao-Cao’s big loss of the battle 赤壁大战。


 


36。走为上计


 


“Going away is now the best option”


 


At times in your life, there may be situations that when you lay out all the options, none is good enough, and escaping the whole situation/go away become the best choice.


 


When save your self become the best option, its called “留着青山在,不怕没材烧”


 


That’s all, my kids. I hope its cool.


 


Coments:


There is no clear cut line between military tactics and daily life skills at times. We want to be very positive and optimistic in life. Don’t keep looking at dark side of life, especially when you can’t do much about it. On the other hand, you got to know there are bad things and bad people in life that you have to deal with. You need to know how to.


 


Don’t get anxious and paranoid about all these tricks. You only need to use them some times, and always in more civilized way and less military way. You can always use tricks on others who are your rivals, enemies or who are difficult to deal with. Of course be aware of possible trick they may use on you. You should have out-smart them now you learned all the trick.


 


Life is indeed hard and competition is indeed fierce at times. Some times a small tactics e the balance till in your favor. You “gain a leverage” by going a little extra mile outsmarting others.


 


Above all, you always assume somebody honest and trustworthy until evidence showed otherwise. And also remember, all enemies can be changed to friends. I am personally pretty good in this. In history, 蒋介石 was a real master in changing enemies into friends.


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

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愚飞 回复 悄悄话 三十六计可是中华精华呀。希望有高手改改本人的臭英文。
愚飞 回复 悄悄话 回复TNEGI//ETNI的评论:
huahualan 回复 悄悄话 好不容易才逃出这些东东的陷阱,一定不让下一代学这些啦!
idforyou 回复 悄悄话 "bad translation, true Chinglish, indeed ruining Chinese wisdom!"
Shouldn't it be "bad xxx, true xxx, indeed it ruins xxx"

Your 'english' sucks - you don't even know Chinglish, period.
idforyou 回复 悄悄话 The translation isn't that professional but good enough to be understood without misleading.

I'm surprised to see so many sour grapes here - none of them can translate it as good as LX did, period.

"It sounded like Chinglish.
Needed better translation." - shouldn't it be "It sounds like xxxx and needs a better xxxx"???

barberini 回复 悄悄话 bad translation, true Chinglish, indeed ruining Chinese wisdom!
idforyou 回复 悄悄话 回复钱医生的评论:
He is absolutely right, your explanation is on the opposite.
钱医生 回复 悄悄话 #13,打草惊蛇 - “Beat the bush and startled the snake”. I can't claim to be an authority on this subject by any means. Your translation seemed missing the boat entirely. The true meaning is "trying not to make too much noise around your enemy while you are preparing to attack, so that your enemy will not be startled, then prepare themselves to counter attack or escape". The real life lesson is to not alarm and forewarn your opponent unless/until you are ready to challenge them. Hope this suggestion will not make you feel you "lost face".
reader 回复 悄悄话 It sounded like Chinglish.
Needed better translation.
别怨我妈 回复 悄悄话 绝了。给我儿子看。
TNEGI//ETNI 回复 悄悄话 谢谢你的奉献。想起不久前和LP发生不愉快地争吵,为了不使事情恶化到不可收拾,开上车到外面溜了一圈。出门时她吓坏了,跑出来试图阻止我,以为这样会不安全,担心我在那种情形下做出傻事。我极力平息自己,告诉她只想出去转转。我开车出去走了一圈,大约一个小时后才回家。“走为上”是最好的一计。

另外,可否请作者将其它漏掉的几计补上?还有一些英文单词的错误,请在Word中检查修正后重新贴上了。谢谢了。
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