Translation of the first paragraph:
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period (春秋战国时期), there were many assassins whose stories were eloquent. There was Nie Zheng's (聂政的) heroism and Jing Ke's (荆轲的) pride. But there was also an assassin, who, from the beginning to the end, I felt useless. He was 豫让 (豫讓) Yù ràng, who tried to assassinate Zhao Yuzi (赵襄子).
Second paragraph:
The background of this assassin's story is "three families divided Jin [Dynasty] (晋[国])." During the end of spring and autumn period (春秋末年) in the Jin Dynasty, the government was controlled by the six great princes. After some struggles, Fan (范) family (氏) and Zhongxing (中行) family (氏) were exterminated, and the Zhi (智) family (氏) was the most powerful among the remaining four families (韩, 赵, 魏, 智).
Zhi (智) began to "clean up" the remaining three families one by one, ready to dominate the country. At that time, Zhi family' head, Zhibo (智伯), orchestrated a jointly attacked of Zhao (赵) with Han (韩) and Wei (魏) families. When Zhao was almost unable to hold off the attack, Zhao family's head, Zhao Yanzi (赵襄子) sent people to lobby both Han and Wei and told them that IF Zhao was destroyed, they, Han and Wei, would be destroyed by Zhi next. So the three decided to join forces. On the battlefield, Han and Wei defected [to Zhao] and Zhi was destroyed [instead], and who's family's land was divided by the three families of Han, Zhao, and Wei. Jin, in the end / eventually split into three countries.
... 豫让 (豫讓) Yù ràng, tried and tried and tried to assassinate Zhao Yuzi (赵襄子) ...
last two paragraphs:
Zhao Yanzi asked Yu: "You had followed Fan and Zhongxing before, why did you not take revenge for them? Instead, you were so revengeful Zhao?"
Yu said, "Fan and Zhongxing treated me as an ordinary person only, Zhibo treated me as a national hero, so I would take revenge on him.”
Zhao Yanzi sighed and said: “I have let you go once and I will not let you off this time.”
Yu said, “Why don’t you let me do this - take off your clothes and let me chop it down a few times with the sword and let me count that as my revenge.”
Zhao Yanzi did not expect that this fool was actually a stupid man. That was such a ridiculous request that he wanted to think about it, then decided to grant him his request. So he took off his coat and threw it down. Yu jumped up and cut his clothes with a swords three times, finally satisfied and threw down the weapon and surrendered, and was eventually killed by Zhao Yanzi.
This story tells us that we shouldn’t use a stubborn man (一根筋的人) to do things.
Sort: Trending