曾有李代桃僵
“The plum tree used to die for the peach tree.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
老夫曾经把这首诗教于你们 你可曾记得
“I once taught you this poem. Do you still remember?”
曾有 李代桃僵
“The plum tree used to die for the peach tree.”
但如今 李树要是死了呢
“But now, what if the plum tree dies?”
“Someone sacrificed themselves for another in the past, but that strategy may no longer work.”
In Chinese high-stakes rhetoric and historical drama, speakers rarely state political danger plainly; they cite poetry and idioms to test loyalty and intellect.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
the plum tree perishes for the peach tree; to substitute one thing for another or take the blame/fall for someone else
A classical idiom from the Thirty-Six Stratagems, used to describe sacrificing oneself or a scapegoat to preserve something more important.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“It seems that Yan Han destroyed the evidence to cover up his true identity.”
“I'm very pleased”
“and has saved the Li family from disaster several times.”
“Surely, Grand Tutor Li,”
“the entire Li family.”
“It's "Pointing at the Mulberry Tree but Scolding the Locust Tree"!”