郢書燕說

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See also: 郢书燕说

Chinese

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name of an ancient city letter Yan state to speak; to interpret; to be happy
trad. (郢書燕說)
simp. (郢书燕说)

Etymology

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Literally, “Ying writes a letter and Yan reads it” (or “Yan delights in it”).

This idiom came from an anecdote told by Han Fei (韓非):

先王郢書後世燕說。…相國:「。」「舉燭」。「舉燭」:「舉燭。」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
先王郢书后世燕说。…相国:「。」「举烛」。「举烛」:「举烛。」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Han Feizi, circa 2nd century BCE
Gù xiānwáng yǒu Yǐngshū ér hòushì duō Yānyuè.... Yǐng rén yǒu wèi Yān xiàngguó shū zhě. Yè shū, huǒ bù míng, yīn wèi chí zhú zhě yuē: “Jǔ zhú.” Yún ér guò shū “jǔzhú”. “Jǔzhú” fēi shū yì yě. Yān xiàng shòu shū ér yuè zhī, yuē: “Jǔzhú zhě, shàng míng yě. Shàng míng yě zhě, jǔ xián ér rèn zhī.” Yān xiàng bái Wáng, Wáng dà yuè, guó yǐ zhì. Zhì zé zhì yǐ, fēi shū yì yě. [Pinyin]
Therefore, the ancient wise kings left us with much easily-misunderstood classics, and posterior generations delight in their distorted interpretations.… A man from Ying was writing a letter to the Chancellor of Yan. As he was writing at night and the lighting was poor, he ordered to “hold up the candle”, but he wrote down what he uttered by mistake. The words "to hold up the candle" was meaningless in the letter's context. When the Chancellor of Yan received the letter, he was much delighted, for he interpreted “to hold up the candle” as “to honour light”, and hence “to promote the wise”. The Chancellor recounted this to the King, who was also much delighted, and his State became well-governed because of those measures. Well-governed as it was, it had never been the letter's intended effect.

Pronunciation

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Idiom

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郢書燕說

  1. to misinterpret the original meaning; to distort the meaning in order to fit one's ideas; to pile up errors