Chinese idiom story 21 事半功倍 shì bàn ɡōnɡ bèi

2021/04/28

Learning Chinese idioms is an essential part of learning Chinese culture. Learning an idiom story every day will greatly improve your Chinese level.




Idiom        事半功倍  shì bàn ɡōnɡ bèi 


Explain      twice the result with half the effort


Story background


During the warring States period, there was a great thinker named Mencius, who had many students.


Once he and his student Gongsun Chou talked about unifying the world.They start from Zhou Wenwang, said that at that time, Wenwang on the basis of only a 

hundred miles of small countries, the implementation of benevolent government, and thus created great achievements;And now the world's common people are 

suffering from war, with Qi such a large country with a wide range of people, if we can carry out benevolent government, to unify the world, compared with the many 

difficulties experienced by King Zhou Wen at that time, that would be much easier.


Mencius finally said :" Today, a great country like Qi, if it can carry out benevolent government, the people of the world must like it very much, as if to relieve their 

pain. Therefore, the favor to the people is only half of the ancients, and the effect must be doubled. Now is the best time !"


Later, according to Mencius said these two words, extended to "twice the result with half the effort ", used to describe the work spent less power and received great 

results.


If it takes a lot of effort and time, but the efficiency is very low, we call it "half the result" (事倍功半 shì  bèi ɡōnɡ bàn).



  战国的时候,有个大思想家叫孟子,他有很多的学生。


   有一次他和他的学生公孙丑谈论统一天下的问题。他们从周文王谈起,说当时文王以方圆仅一百里的小国为基础,施行仁政,因而创立了丰功伟业;而如今天下老百姓都苦于战乱,

以齐国这样一个地广人多的大国,如能推行仁政,要统一天下,与当时周文王所经历的许多困难相比,那就容易得多了。

  孟子最后说:“今天,像齐国那样的大国,如能施行仁政,天下百姓必定十分喜欢,犹如替他们解除痛苦一般。所以,给百姓的恩惠只及古人的一半,而获得的效果必定能够加倍。

现在正是最好的时机呢!”


  后来人们便根据孟子所说的这两句话,引申为“事半功倍”,用来形容做事所花力量较小而收到的效果甚大。


  如果花了很大的力气和时间,但是办事的效率很低,,我们就称它为“事倍功半” shì  bèi ɡōnɡ bàn。



Edited by Baoyang from Shanghai Beihaimandarin