Carrying Wood to Put out a
Fire
| Characters: |
 |
Pronunciation:
bao(4) xin(1) jiu(4) huo(3)
Explanation:
Meaning trying to better a situation with
a wrong method and thus making it even worse
Tone:
Neutral
The Story: During the Warring States
Period, the bigger states had annexed the
smaller ones. Finally there were only 7 states
left. They were: Qi, Chu , Yan ,Han, Zhao,
Wei and Qin. (If you want to play a cool Warring
States game, visit Zhanshen.com!)
Qin
was the most powerful one among the 7 states
and continuously and fiercely attacked the
other six. In 273 BC, the Qin army won a great
victory over the army of states Wei, Han and
Zhao. The general of Wei, Duan Ganzi, was
so scared that he asked prince An Xi of Wei
to give up Nanyang City for Qin for the sake
of peace. Minister Su Dai didn't agree to
any of this nonsense! He said to prince An
Xi: "Qin wouldn't be satisfied until
all of Wei's land was given to them. To sue
for peace with the method of ceding land is
like carrying wood to put out a fire. The
fire cannot be ceased until the last piece
of wood burned out." Prince An xi didn't
accept his advice and Qin eventually defeated
Wei.
Usage
Example (Pinyin): Wo(3) jian(4) yi(4)
ni(3) bie(2) guan(3), ni(3) de bang(1) zhu(4)
you(3) ru(2) bao(4) xin(1) jiu(4) huo(3).
Usage
Example (English translation): I suggest
you stand aside, your help is just like carrying
wood to put out a fire for her.
Note:
The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4
spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create
those above where after each syllable we tell
you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond
to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to
complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms
newsletter with a good offline study program.
