Idiom Explanation:
People who fled fifty steps in defeat ridicule those who fled a hundred steps in defeat. The nature of the shortcomings or mistakes is the same, but only the difference between the seriousness or lightness of the situation.
Pronunciation:
五十步笑百步
wǔ shí bù xiào bǎi bù
Origin:
《孟子·梁惠王上》：“王好战，请以战喻。填然鼓之，兵刃既接，弃甲曳兵而走。或百步而后止，或五十步而后止。以五十步笑百步，则何如？”
Story:
In the middle of the Warring States period, there was a king named King Hui of Liang. In order to expand his territory and gather wealth, he came up with many ways and drove the people to the battlefield to fight for him.
One day, he asked Mencius: “I have done my best for the country, haven’t I? When there was a bad year in Hanoi, I moved the disaster victims from Hanoi to Hedong and transferred grain from Hedong to Hanoi. When there was a bad year in Hedong, I also tried to save the disaster by all means. Look at the neighboring kings who have not done what I did. But why is it that the people of the neighboring countries did not flee in great numbers, nor did the people of our country increase significantly?”
Mencius replied, “Your Majesty likes to fight, so I will use the analogy of fighting a battle. On the battlefield, when the war drums are sounded, soldiers from both sides fight sword to sword and gun to gun. The result of the fight, the defeated side will inevitably abandon their armor and run for their lives. If a soldier runs slowly, only fifty paces, but to ridicule the soldier who has run a hundred paces is ‘greedy for life and death’, is this right?”
King Hui of Liang immediately replied, “Of course not! He only did not run a hundred paces, but he was still running away.” Mencius said, “Although you love the people, if you like to fight, the people will suffer. This is the same as 50 paces. How can you hope that your people will be more numerous than those of your neighbors?”
This parable tells us that we should look at the essence of things and not be confused by superficial phenomena. The idiom of “fifty steps laughing at a hundred steps” is extracted from this parable.
Similar Idioms:
- 半斤八两
