play off one power against another(yǐ yí zhì yí)

play off one power against another

As a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is y ǐ y í zh ì y í, which means to make use of the internal contradictions between foreigners and foreigners to make them conflict with each other and weaken their power. It comes from the biography of Deng Xun in the book of the later Han Dynasty.

The origin of Idioms

In the biography of Deng Xun in the book of the later Han Dynasty by Fan Ye of the Southern Dynasty, it is said that "the debaters attack each other with the Qiang and Hu, and the county officials attack each other with the benefit of the foreigners, so it is not suitable to ban and protect them."

Idiom usage

It's formal, attributive and derogatory. example I still remember that when many people in China were crying about the League of nations, the Japanese newspapers often ridiculed it, saying that it was the old method of using foreigners to control foreigners handed down by Chinese ancestors. In Lu Xun's pseudo freedom book, we can make friends with a inferior enemy country a, although both countries are our enemies. "Controlling foreigners with foreigners" is the main foreign policy and strategy of the late Qing government. It is the product of the process that the ruling class of the late Qing Dynasty turned from suspicion to dependence on the Western powers in the deepening historical process of China's national crisis after 1870s. The word "subduing foreigners with foreigners" should have been neutral, just like "drawing a salary from the bottom of the pot" and "making a close and distant attack", which belong to the strategy of struggle. However, in history, the word "conquering foreigners with foreigners" often caused jokes, tragedies, and even national subjugation, so the word became more negative. Wang Anshi of Song Dynasty is the inventor of the word "to control foreigners by foreigners". Another theory is derived from Fan Ye's biography of Deng Xun in the book of the later Han Dynasty: "the debaters attack each other by Qiang and Hu, and the county officials benefit from cutting off foreigners by foreigners, which is not suitable for protection." The first case of the collapse of the dynasty was created by the Northern Song Dynasty.

Idiom story

Story 1: at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were three powerful nationalities in the northern part of the Song Dynasty: Xia, Liao and Jin. In order to deal with these three nationalities, the Song Dynasty sent people to make an appointment with Jin to attack Liao together, and the land of Liao was recovered by Song Dynasty. This is the famous "conquering foreigners with foreigners". But the Song Dynasty was very miserable in the end. Although Jin Kingdom invaded the capital of Liao, Song Dynasty was defeated. Of course, Jin Kingdom was not willing to give the land of Liao to Song Dynasty In the end, the Song Dynasty's method of controlling foreigners by foreigners failed. In May 1122, after the Northern Song Dynasty completely put down the fangla uprising, it gathered more than 100000 troops to attack Liao. At this time, the state of Liao was on the verge of being beaten by the state of Jin. The authorities of the Northern Song Dynasty thought that there was a chance to pick up a bargain, so they abandoned the peace treaty signed in those years and took the opportunity to clean up the "sick worm" of the state of Liao. Unexpectedly, in front of the 20000 or 30000 disabled generals led by Yelu Dashi, the elite troops of the Northern Song Dynasty were defeated in both wars. Originally intended to control Liao with Jin, but the end was that Jin looked at the fire from the other side and happily found that the so-called "great song" was not vulnerable. So after the destruction of Liao, the state of Jin soon defeated the Northern Song Dynasty and created "Jingkang shame". perhaps because of "gene", a similar situation appeared in the late Southern Song Dynasty. The once powerful kingdom of Jin was defeated by the more powerful Mongolia. Zhao's small court, which had been in Pianan for more than a hundred years, saw the hope of recovering the Central Plains, so it negotiated with Mongolia to cut gold together. However, after the destruction of the Jin Dynasty, Mongolia felt that the Southern Song Dynasty was too weak to fulfill its promise, so it did not give Henan to the Southern Song Dynasty, only gave Chen caidongnan a little territory. The Southern Song Dynasty probably thought that the Mongols had lost a lot of money in fighting against the Jin State, and they had a chance to take advantage of it. So when they saw the main force of the Mongols returning to the north, they raided Biancheng and Luocheng. The result is not only unsuccessful, but also worse than that of Tong Guan's expedition to Liao Dynasty, which killed more than 100000 soldiers and people, and gave Mongolia an excuse to launch a war. The same strategic mistakes appeared twice in the Song Dynasty, and the emperor Zhaojia was undoubtedly a failure model of "conquering foreigners with foreigners". Of course, even if we did not adopt the strategy of "controlling foreigners with foreigners", the northern and Southern Song dynasties would perish, which was due to their strength. But there are many ways to die. It's not tragic at all to die of "conquering the barbarians with the barbarians", which makes people unable to sympathize. The reason why this situation has happened again and again is that speculative psychology still plays a role. In the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang once again offered sacrifices to "conquer the barbarians" and tried to rely on Britain to seek peace from France and European powers to prevent Japan from invading China. In March 1885, Feng Zicai, a veteran general, led his ministry to the great victories in zhennanguan and Liangshan, which led to the downfall of the French cabinet. When the Qing government was in pursuit of victory, it signed the Sino French Treaty of Tianjin with France, which was humiliating and humiliating. It handed over the gateway of the southwest frontier to the defeated party and staged a farce in the history of diplomacy. The Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895 was not avoided because of the influence of the great powers In the end, Li Hongzhang's "using foreigners to control foreigners" made great powers blossom everywhere in China, and they all took what they needed with satisfaction. "if you accidentally get sulfuric acid, what should you do?" In chemistry class, the teacher once asked us this. "Then I'll pour some strong base on sulfuric acid, neutralize the acid and alkali, and it will turn into water." I remember a classmate answered like this, but few of them laughed. the teacher said that this is a mistake on top of the wrong, strong acid has corroded the skin, and then strengthen the alkali, you can't afford to hurt! Why does acid base neutralization work on you? Because neutralization of acid and alkali occurs in glass containers. The glass itself can withstand the corrosive force of acid and alkali. What about your skin? It can't carry it. the principle is similar to that of neutralization of acid and alkali. As a third party, if you are much weaker than the two foreigners, you don't want to play this trick. The only way to survive is to take advantage of the confrontation between the two barbarians and make every effort to strengthen their own strength. Playing the game of opportunism, or taking advantage occasionally, is never a shortcut to success.

Chinese PinYin : yǐ yí zhì yí