望梅止渴
Among the outstanding figures of Chinese history, famous either for theirintelligence or treachery(背叛,變節), Cao Cao is one of the foremost.
One hot day, he marched out his troops under a burning sun in a mountainousarea. Bewilderingly(令人困惑地) he lost the way. The journey was long and the sun wasscorching. After their fruitless and tiresome march, all voiced their greatdissatisfaction with the leadership of Cao Cao. They bitterly complained oftheir great thirst. The antagonism(對抗) of the soldiers was growing fast and theywere on the verge of staging a mutiny(兵變). The subordinate officers werehelpless to cope with the situation.
Cao Cao, however, in the nick of time cleverly and treacherously gaveorders to his troops to march to the nearby plum trees for a rest and announcedthat soldiers would be allowed to eat the juicy sour(酸的) fruit as much as theydesired.
At the thought of the sour fruit the soldiers' complaint of great thirst aswell as the antagonistic feeling were quickly forgotten.
Based on the story the later generation formed the proverb “to quench one'sthirst by looking up at plums”, to illustrate a case where one takes comfort inbelieving that they have already attained that which was expected ordesired.
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