The defense of the people is better than the defense of Sichuan(fáng mín zhī kǒu，shèn yú fáng chuān)

The defense of the people is better than the defense of Sichuan

It comes from Guoyu zhouyu Shang: "it's better to guard against the mouth of the people than to guard against the river. If the river is choked up and collapsed, it will hurt many people, and so will the people. Therefore, for the sake of Sichuan, it is decided to direct the mission; for the sake of the people, it is decided to publicize the mission. "

The harm of stopping people from speaking outweighs the harm of blocking rivers.

It can be interpreted as: if people are not allowed to speak, there will be great harm.

chinese idioms

It is better to guard against the people than to guard against the people. F á NGM í nzh ī K ǒ u, sh è NY ú f á ngchu ā n. [example] a man's heart is as dangerous as a mountain. He is better at defending the people's mouth than he is at defending Sichuan. He has different feelings of resentment and anger, and his words of banter are useless. The Southern Dynasty, Liang and Liu Xie

Related stories

King Li Jihu was the tenth king of the Zhou Dynasty. When he was in power, his national strength had declined. At this time, the invasion of foreign nationalities, the chaos of vassals, the reduction of tribute and taxes, the Dynasty's Treasury empty. But the newly ascended King li of Zhou Dynasty was extravagant and licentious, and took the road of Jie and Zhou, which made the financial crisis of the Zhou royal family appear soon. In order to decide to increase taxes, King li of Zhou lived a lavish life. If all the taxes that should be collected are collected, how can we set up a new tax? What is the name of Taxation? He can't think of it. He has collected all the taxes. At this time, one of his ministers, Rong Yigong, gave Li Wang an idea to levy "patent tax" on some important products. As long as they collect herbs, cut firewood, fish shrimps, shoot birds and animals, they must pay taxes, even drink water and walk. This method was strongly opposed by the common people, and even some more enlightened officials felt that it was very inappropriate. Many ministers also evaded loyal advice from King Li. Among them, a doctor named Rui Liangfu advised Li Wang not to implement "patent". "Patents, which are against the interests of most people, are very hurtful," he said But king Li didn't listen at all. He just trusted Duke Rongyi and asked him to exempt himself from responsibility and implement "patent". after the implementation of the patent. The people's life was even worse, and the people's resentment was boiling. At that time, there was a song: "big rat, big rat, no food, I have millet.". If you are three years old, don't care. When you're gone, you'll be happy. It means: "rat, rat, don't eat my millet any more. I've indulged you for many years, but you don't care for us at all. We vow to leave you and go to the paradise of joy. " The people's strong dissatisfaction with King Zhou Li is beyond expression. The common people are full of resentment towards King Zhou Li and curse him one after another. Seeing that the situation was critical, the minister Zhao Gonghu advised King li of Zhou, saying, "my Lord, the people can't stand it any more. If the patent law is not abolished, it is rare that there will be no turmoil." But king Li didn't listen at all. He asked the wizard of the state of Wei to monitor the common people. If he found that someone was talking about "patent" and Cursed King Li, he would arrest him and kill him. From then on, although people were full of complaints, they had to swallow them, and no one dared to say it again. Acquaintances on the road to meet also dare not talk, just to the eye. This is the origin of idioms. The whole city suddenly became lifeless and lifeless. However, King Li thought that his brutal rule had produced effect, and said to Zhaohu with complacency, "look, who else is talking about what?" After hearing this, Zhao Gong Hu said to Li Wang, "it's a kind of retarded practice. The harm of stopping people from speaking outweighs the harm of blocking rivers. If the river is blocked, the water will rise and the dyke will burst, which will hurt more people. The water control method of dredging the river course should be adopted, which is also the truth of governing the people, and it should be open-minded. Isn't it very dangerous for the king to block his way with severe punishment and harsh laws? " King Li ignored Zhao Gong's words, but more cruelly ruled. When there is oppression, there is resistance. The Chinese can't stand it any more! Small nobles, small businessmen and craftsmen gathered in the capital and rushed to the palace to find King Li. At first, King Li wanted to suppress the people. All the soldiers in the army were civilians. When they saw the rebellion, many people joined in. Seeing that the situation was over, King li of Zhou had to take some followers and sneak out of the palace. Before Li Wang left, he entrusted Prince Ji Jing to Zhaohu, and then fled to Huo County, Shanxi Province. the angry uprising masses couldn't find King Li, so they decided to find the prince to make amends. They learned that the prince had been taken in by his family, so they surrounded his family and ordered him to hand over the prince. Zhao Gong thought, "in the past, the Emperor didn't listen to my advice, so he came to this situation. Now that I hand over the prince, will someone say that I am unfaithful to the emperor and waiting for revenge? At the beginning, I promised to protect the prince so as to make Wang feel at ease. Now if I hand over the prince, isn't it a great injustice? But when the Chinese see that they can't find the prince, they won't agree. What shall we do? " After much consideration, he decided to replace the crown prince with his own son and give it to the uprising masses, so that the crown prince was not killed by the Chinese. On the second day of the Chinese uprising, Wei Wugong, the monarch of the state of Wei, took his army to Haojing. This Wei Wu Gong is called gongbohe. Gongbohe led his troops to the capital of Ho to fight against the rebellion, but the uprising masses had dispersed before he came to the capital. So he went into the king's palace with his army. Although the prince is in the capital, he is too young to be in charge. He was replaced by Zhaogong's son. Now the riot has just ended, and it's not time to tell the truth. So Zhao Gonghu proposed that the affairs of the state should be handled by Gongbo and his deputy for the time being, and all the other ministers agreed. Although gongbohe was an agent, he was actually the same as the emperor in governing and asking questions. Therefore, these two years are called the first year of the Republic (841 BC). That is to say, from this year on, the history of our country began to have an accurate date to look up. After being in power, gongbohe adopted the suggestion of Zhao Bohu, abolished the "patent" law of King Li, reduced various taxes, made the people live in peace, and made the society more stable. In the history books, the period of gongbohe in power is called the Republican period. In the twinkling of an eye, fourteen years later, the king of Zhou Li died, and the prince Ji Jing has grown up in the house of Zhao Gong Hu. Zhaogong Hu felt that the time was ripe, so he went to the court to tell the truth to gongbohe and other ministers. He said that the ministers of the Zhou Dynasty saw that the crown prince was still alive, but they all agreed to let the crown prince succeed. Gongbohe knew that he was not orthodox in the Zhou Dynasty. If he could not convince the public, he might as well go along with the flow of human feelings. He went to the tiger's house of Zhaogong in person to take Prince Jing into the palace and held a grand ceremony to ascend the throne. He returned to the original fiefdom when his princes went. The new emperor was king Xuan of Zhou.

Inspiration from Idioms

In Chinese history, many rulers were licentious, but they were afraid of the people's comments, so they took measures to suppress social speech, thinking that they could have a good rest. In fact, this is the stupidest way to do it. It not only makes the situation of the lower class unreachable, the wrong policies can not be corrected, and aggravates social contradictions. What's more terrible is that although people don't say it, they are full of hatred. As long as social contradictions reach the critical point, large-scale riots will inevitably break out, causing great damage to social productive forces. It can be said that "people's defense is better than Sichuan defense." The Chinese people are the most tolerant of tyranny in the world, but they are also the country with the most uprisings.

source

interpretation

The harm of preventing people from criticizing is more serious than the flood caused by blocking a river. If the people are not allowed to speak, there will be great harm.

The origin of allusions

In Guoyu zhouyu Shang: "it's better to guard against the mouth of the people than to guard against the river. If the river is blocked up and collapsed, it will hurt many people, and so will the people. Therefore, for the sake of Sichuan, it is decided to direct the mission; for the sake of the people, it is decided to publicize the mission. "

notes

Prevent: prevent; even: exceed. It means blocking people's mouths is more serious than blocking rivers. If the river is blocked and burst, many people will be hurt. People are like rivers. Therefore, the people who control the water should dredge the river and let the water flow freely; the people who control the water should enlighten them and let them speak freely.

Idiom story

After the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, it also took a cruel rule over the people, so the people became more and more dissatisfied with the Zhou Dynasty and rebelled one after another. In order to suppress the people, the rulers of Zhou Dynasty adopted very severe punishment. After King Zhou Li ascended the throne, the pressure on the people became heavier, and various social contradictions intensified. It is said that King li of Zhou trusted a minister named Rong Yigong at that time. He was very good at collecting property and cruelly oppressing the people. With his privileges, Rong Yi Gong seized all the lakes and rivers, monopolized all the profits of the mountains, forests and rivers, prohibited the common people to go up the mountains to cut firewood and hunt, and went down to the river to fish, thus cutting off the livelihood of the broad masses of the people; he mobilized the masses to invade the neighboring countries, and constantly increased the burden of the common people. His perverse behavior and excessive collection of taxes have caused strong dissatisfaction among the broad masses of the people, leading to the rise and fall of the government and the field, the murders everywhere, people's self-danger and people's resentment boiling. At that time, the farmers living in the wild were called "savages", and the civilians living in the capital city were called "countrymen". The people in the capital city of hojing were dissatisfied with the tyrannical measures of King Li. When the minister called Mu Gong to hear more and more people's comments and social unrest, he went into the palace and told Li Wang, "Rong Yi Gong's practice is intolerable to the people. If you don't take back the privilege given to Rong Yi Gong as soon as possible, the people will riot and it's hard to clean up the mess." "I have my own way to deal with this small matter," Li Wang said Therefore, King li of Zhou ordered that the Chinese should not criticize the government. He also asked a wizard from the state of Wei to spy on those who criticized the government and said, "if you find someone slandering me behind my back, you should immediately report it to me

Chinese PinYin : fáng mín zhī kǒu，shèn yú fáng chuān