三十六計(jì)(Thirty-Six Stratagems)-第三計(jì)

　　借刀殺人 Kill with a Borrowed Sword

　　原文 Content

　　敵已明，友示定，引友殺敵，不自出力，以《損》推演。

　　英文注釋：When you do not have the means to attack your enemy directly, then attack using the strength of another. Trick an ally into attacking him, bribe an official to turn traitor, or use the enemy's own strength against him.

　　探源 Origin

　　英文：During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were three fearless warriors in Qi by the name of Gongsun Jie, Tian Kaijiang and Gu Yezi. They were very arrogant because of the accomplishments on the battlefield and even showed disrespect towards the king of Qi, Jing Gong. So when Jing Gong planed to remove them to avoid any future troubles, the prime minister, Yan Ying suggested killing the three warriors with two peaches. Two peaches were to be awarded to the two of them who deserved it the most. Gongsun Jie and Tian Kaijiang thought they were deserved and took one peach each, while Gu Yezi angrily pulled his sword and challenged the other two to a duel. At last Gongsun Jie and Tian Kaijing felt ashamed of arguing fiercely just for two peaches and then committed suicide with their swords. Having watched this, Gu Yezi killed himself the same way. Thus Yan Ying was able to remove three potential threats to the country of Qi without lifting a finger.(引用自全球華文網(wǎng))

　　中文：春秋時(shí)期齊國(guó)有三位無(wú)敵勇士，名叫公孫接、田開疆、古冶子。他們恃功傲慢，甚至連齊景公都不放在眼里。所以當(dāng)景公計(jì)劃除掉他們以絕后患的時(shí)候，齊相晏嬰提出了“二桃殺三士”的建議。兩只桃子將被賞賜給其中功勞最大的兩個(gè)人。公孫接、田開疆認(rèn)為他們的功勞最大就各拿走了一只桃子;而古冶子生氣地拔出劍做決斗狀。最后公孫接和田開疆為他們因區(qū)區(qū)兩只桃而爭(zhēng)得不可開交感到十分羞愧，便揮劍自刎了。目睹這一切后古冶子也用同樣的方式自殺了。于是晏嬰不費(fèi)吹灰之力就鏟除了齊國(guó)的三個(gè)隱患。

　　詞匯 Vocabularies

　　bribe: 賄賂，收買

　　traitor: 叛徒，背叛者

　　warrior: 勇士，武士

　　arrogant: 傲慢的，自負(fù)的;與proud的區(qū)別是arrogant為貶義詞，而proud 為中性詞

　　deserve: 應(yīng)受，應(yīng)得;如：You deserve it.(名至實(shí)歸。)

　　duel: 決斗，斗爭(zhēng);challenge sb. to a duel意思是向某人要求決斗

　　commit suicide: 自殺;類似的說(shuō)法還有self-murder, kill oneself

　　without lifting a finger：不費(fèi)吹灰之力;如：get sth. without lifting a finger(唾手可得)，reap the spoils of victory without lifting a finger(坐收漁利)

　　總結(jié) Summary

　　砍人肯定是要準(zhǔn)備刀的。可如果對(duì)方人高馬大，而手中只有一把指甲刀，拿著指甲刀去砍人無(wú)異于找死。這時(shí)就需要借助外力，或挑撥離間或指桑罵槐，假他人之手而除之。如此一來(lái)，既不需自己赤膊上陣，又不需消耗自己的實(shí)力，更不會(huì)招致殺人兇手的罪名，所謂的殺人于無(wú)形之中即是如此。