Mon, Jul 30, 2018 page9

• USING IDIOMS 活用成語

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  Chinese practice

  防微杜漸

  protecting against the small, to prevent its growth

  

  Eine kleine Gartnerin, 1886, Antonie Boubong. 《小園丁》。一八八六年。安托尼‧波邦作。

  Photo: Wikimedia Commons
  照片：維基共享資源

  (fang2 wei2 du4 jian4)

  古代經典《詩經》中的《大雅》是用在正式場合的宮廷詩歌，咸認作於西周時期，當時「天命」這觀念，已被認為是可據以推翻前朝的充分理由。

  君王透過公正的統治，才得以獲得「天命」的授權來統治天下（因此皇帝又被稱作「天子」），但老天也會檢驗君王的統治，看這統治的天命是否得以繼續，或應被撤銷。《詩經‧大雅》中的〈生民之什‧板〉一章，描述上天不喜王朝的統治方式，並警告君王不得愚昧或自滿。有一句寫道：

  「敬天之怒，無敢戲豫。」（敬畏上天的憤怒，不敢戲謔或怠惰。）

  數世紀後，「敬天之怒，無敢戲豫」這句話出現在《後漢書》中的〈桓榮丁鴻列傳〉──丁鴻給東漢和帝（公元七九～一○六年）的上書中，引述了這句話。和帝即位時只有九歲，因此由竇太后臨朝聽政，直到和帝長大足以親自處理政事。竇太后為了鞏固自己的權力，便將她的家族近親提拔至掌握大權的高位。時任司徒的丁鴻擔心竇氏家族日益坐大的勢力，便藉當時發生的日食──古時被視為預兆，即上天的警告──而上書和帝，敦促皇帝處理這問題：「若敕政責躬，杜漸防萌，則兇妖銷滅，害除福湊矣」（皇帝應該把握權力，在問題還在萌芽狀態時，便將其除去，在邪惡坐大之前根除邪惡；唯有如此，才能避免禍害、得到福份）。

  成語「防微杜漸」即出於此，它的字面意思是「防止微小的事物，以避免它增長擴大」，或者更白話一點地說，是「在其處於萌芽狀態時就把它阻絕」。

  漢和帝聽從了這個建議，便免除竇太后家族成員的職務，並將丁鴻擢升為太久兼衛（軍隊指揮官和宮殿駐軍），因此──至少在短時間內──避免了一場政治危機。

  前面已提到的：「在其處於萌芽狀態時就把它阻絕」，英文是「to nip something in the bud」，意為趁事物還很微小的時候阻止它發展，其意義同成語「防微杜漸」。這個說法當然直接源自園藝，藉由切除或掐掉植物的芽，來影響植物的生長方式，或將植物生長的能量導向其他地方。這句話用做比喻，早在十六世紀末、十七世紀初便已出現在印行的書中。在一五九五年出版的《Piers Plainnes Seaven Yeres Prentiship》一書中，英格蘭劇作家亨利‧切特爾（約西元一五六四～一六○六年）便使用了這句話的早期版說法「nip something in the bloom」（在開花時掐掉它）：

  「用思想的勞動來熄滅這些深情的愛，並在情感萌芽時將它扼殺，讓它永遠不會有能力發芽。」

  有「bud」 一字的版本出現在英國劇作家弗朗西斯‧博蒙特（西元一五八四～一六一六年）和約翰‧弗萊徹（西元一五七九～一六二五年）一六○七年的喜劇《The Woman Hater》（厭女之人）。在第三幕第一場中，女主人公奧里亞娜講話去刺激岡達里諾，也就是該劇標題所指的厭女之人（在奧里亞娜說以下的話之前，岡達里諾把女人和惡魔做比較，說惡魔起碼還曾經是好人），奧里亞娜說：

  我承認，我太濫情、太女人了......

  但我可以眉頭一皺，把激情扼殺掉

  即使它仍在萌芽狀態。

  (台北時報林俐凱譯)

  身體檢查是為了要防微杜漸，及早發現、及早治療。

  (Health checks are about nipping any problems in the bud. The earlier you discover a problem, the earlier you can treat it.)

  今天黑心油事件會釀成這個風暴，是因為政府一開始對民眾的舉報漠視不管，沒有防微杜漸。

  (The reason the tainted oil food scandal blew up so badly was that the government had originally ignored reports from a member of the public and had failed to nip the problem in the bud.)

  英文練習

  to nip something in the bud

  The formal daya court hymns of the ancient Chinese classic the shijing (Book of Poetry) are thought to have been written during the Western Zhou Dynasty, when the idea of tianming — the “Mandate of Heaven” — was developed as a justification for the overthrow of the previous dynasty.

  The mandate, which said that the right of kings is earned through just rule, and bequeathed or revoked at Heaven’s discretion (hence the ruler’s title “Son of Heaven”), is expressed in the daya entitled ban in the shengmin zhi shi (Decade of Sheng Min) chapter. This hymn is all about Heaven’s displeasure at how the kingdom is being ruled, and warns the sovereign not to be unwise or complacent. It contains the line:

  Revere the anger of Heaven and presume not to make sport or be idle.

  According to the Biographies of Heng Rong and Ding Hong of the hou han shu (Book of the Later Han Dynasty), that line was quoted many centuries later in a letter submitted to Emperor He (79 – 106AD) of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Emperor He was a boy of nine when he ascended the throne, and Empress Dowager Dou was ruling in his stead until he was old enough to take the reins of government himself. To consolidate her own power, the empress dowager had promoted immediate members of her family to powerful positions. Fearful of the Dou family’s increasing influence, and taking advantage of a solar eclipse — which would have been seen as an omen, a warning from Heaven — one of the emperor’s ministers, Ding Hong, submitted the aforementioned letter, urging the emperor to deal with the problem, writing 若敕政責躬，杜漸防萌，則凶妖銷滅，害除福湊矣 (the emperor should seize power and nip the problem in the bud, eradicating the evil before it grows; only then can disaster be avoided and fortune be secured).

  From this we get the idiom 防微杜漸, literally “protecting against the small, to prevent its growth” or, more colloquially, “to nip something in the bud.”

  Emperor He heeded the advice, stripping members of Empress Dowager Dou’s family of their positions and elevating Ding Hong to commander of the armed forces and chamberlain for the palace garrison, thereby — for a short time at least — averting a political crisis.

  An English equivalent has already been mentioned: to nip something in the bud, meaning to stop something developing when it is yet small. It is a direct horticultural reference, of course, from the practice of cutting or nipping off the buds of a plant to affect how the plant grows, or to encourage it to place its energies in other ways. Metaphorically, we see it in print as early as the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In the 1595 book Piers Plainnes Seaven Yeres Prentiship, the English dramatist Henry Chettle (c. 1564 – 1606) uses an earlier version of the phrase (“nip something in the bloom”):

  “Extinguish these fond loues [loves] with minds [mind’s] labour, and nip thy affections in the bloome, that they may neuer [never] bee [be] of power [able] to budde [bud].”

  The phrase appears with the word “bud” in the 1607 comedy The Woman Hater by the English dramatists Francis Beaumont (1584 – 1616) and John Fletcher (1579 – 1625). In Act III, Scene One, the female protagonist Oriana, goading the misogynist of the title, Gondarino (and he is: just prior to the following quote, he compares women unfavorably to devils, saying that devils were at least once good), says:

  I do confess, I’m too easy, too much woman...

  Yet I can frown and nip a passion

  Even in the bud.

  (Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)

  I’ve noticed that people have started knocking off work early before they’ve completed their duties. I’m going to nip that one in the bud.

  (我注意到有人已經開始在還沒完成工作時就提早下班了。我要及早阻止這情況惡化。)

  The dog is begging for food at the table. We’d better nip that in the bud. Don’t let him in the dining room while we’re eating dinner.

  (這隻狗在桌邊討吃的，我們應該要防微杜漸，在吃晚餐的時候不要讓狗進來餐廳。)
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