Idiom Explanation:
During the Spring and Autumn Period of China, Yang Yu Ji of the State of Chu was good at archery and could shoot the leaves of a willow at a distance of 100 paces. Later, it was used to describe the skill of archery or marksmanship is very high.
Pronunciation:
百步穿杨
bǎi bù chuān yáng
Origin:
西汉·刘向《战国策·西周策》：“楚有养由基者，善射，去柳叶者百步而射之，百发百中。”
Story:
Bai Qi of the state of Qin was a very good general who never lost a battle he commanded, so people called him the “Ever Victorious General”.
One year, the King of Qin sent Bai Qi to lead his army to attack Wei. Su Li, a strategist, was ordered to persuade Bai Qi not to attack Wei, which would trigger a chain reaction among the vassal states. Su Li managed to pay a visit to Bai Qi and told him a story:
There was a famous archer named Yang Yu Ji. Yang Yu Ji had learnt archery from his childhood, and was able to accurately hit the leaves of a poplar tree at a hundred paces. At that time, there was another warrior named Pan Hu, who was also very good at archery. One day, the two of them competed in an archery match on the field, and many people came to watch. The target for the match was set fifty paces away, where a wooden board was propped up with a red heart drawn on it. Pan Hu drew a strong bow, and three arrows in a row hit the bull’s-eye, winning a round of applause from the onlookers. Yang Yuji looked around and said, “Shooting at a red heart fifty paces away is too close and too big a target. Let’s still compete in shooting poplar leaves from a hundred paces away.” After saying this, he pointed to a poplar tree a hundred paces away and had the people choose a leaf from the tree and paint it red as a target. Then he drew his bow, and with a “whoosh” sound, people looked and saw that the arrow went right through the centre of the red poplar leaf.
All the people present were dumbfounded. Pan Hu knew that he did not have such a skill, but he did not believe that Yang Yu Ji could shoot through the leaves with all his arrows, so he went to the poplar tree, chose three poplar leaves, numbered them with colours, and asked Yang Yu Ji to shoot them again in the order of the numbers. When Yang Yu Ji went to the tree and saw the numbers on the leaves, he retreated a hundred paces away, drew his bow, and fired three arrows in succession, hitting each of the three numbered leaves. In this way, the crowd of onlookers loudly applauded, although Pan Hu lost, but lost with conviction. In the midst of the applause, a man standing beside Yang Yu Ji said coldly, “Well, with the skill of piercing a poplar at a hundred paces, you are worthy to be taught by me.”
Hearing this man speak in such an arrogant tone, Yang Yu Ji could not help but turn around angrily and ask, “How do you intend to teach me archery?” The man replied calmly, “I am not trying to teach you how to draw a bow and shoot arrows, but to remind you how to maintain your archery reputation. Have you ever thought about the fact that once you run out of strength or deviate a little bit, your reputation of being a hundred percent shot will be greatly affected as long as you miss. A person who is really good at archery should take care of maintaining his reputation.”
Su Li said to Bai Qi, “You call yourself an ever-victorious general, yet Wei is not an easy country to conquer. If you fail to win immediately, it will damage your reputation.” Upon hearing this, Bai Qi decided not to go to war easily in order to maintain his reputation of winning a hundred battles, so he cancelled his plan to attack Wei on the pretext that he was not in good health.
Similar Idioms:
- 百发百中
