Chinese practice
雞犬升天
(ji1 quan3 sheng1 tian1)
Photo: Paul Cooper, Taipei Times
照片：台北時報記者古德謙攝
這句成語的出處是東漢王充所寫的《論衡》，講的是淮南修道的太子劉安成仙的故事。王充在書中提到：「王遂得道，舉家升天。畜產皆仙，犬吠於天上，雞鳴於雲中。此言仙藥有餘，犬雞食之，并隨王而升天也。」意即：劉安得道升天成仙，但家裡還留有幾顆他修道成仙用的仙丹，這些仙丹被他家的狗跟雞吃了，結果他家的雞跟狗也跟著升天了，跟劉安一起在天上作伴。這本書後面接著說：「好道學仙之人，皆謂之然。此虛言也。」也就是說：那些嚮往修道成仙的人，都相信這是千真萬確的事蹟，但事實上並沒有這種事。雞犬升天這個故事後來便引伸出來，表示當一個人飛黃騰達了，他身邊的親友也跟著扶搖直上。(台北時報詹豐造譯）
艾蜜麗當了老闆後，她的那些親朋好友一個個都雞犬升天了。
(After Emily became the boss, her friends started getting promoted, one after the other.)
人心難測，你真的相信你的朋友一旦當了經理，你就可以雞犬升天了？
(You’re kidding, right? Do you really think that you’ll be on your way up the minute your mate makes manager?)
英文練習
Riding on the coattails of others
This proverb derives from a reference to when the Taoist master, Prince Liu An of Huainan, in the Eastern Han book Lun Heng written by Wang Chong, achieved immortality. In the book, Wang writes that the prince ascended to Heaven as an immortal, and had left some of the drug of immortality around his courtyard. His dogs and chickens ate it and ascended to Heaven to join him. The book goes on to say that, although many interested in Taoism would love to believe this story, there was little truth in it. Following on from this, the proverb 雞犬升天 — literally “the chicken and dogs ascend to Heaven” — is used to refer to people who achieve success by virtue of the ability or merit of friends, relatives or other people they know.
In English, we can describe this situation by saying that these people have gotten where they are “riding on the coattails of others.”
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
He hasn’t worked for his success. He has got where he is riding on the coattails of his father.
（他的成就不是靠自己努力來的。他能有今天的地位全是靠他老爸的庇廕。）
You cannot rely on hitching a ride on the back of someone else’s hard work.
（你不能成天只想依靠別人努力的成果，攀援富貴。）
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