Here’s a character to borrow in hard times—but don’t forget to give it back
In 208, when general and strategist Zhou Yu (周瑜) of the Eastern Han dynasty challenged his rival Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮) to prepare 100,000 arrows within 10 days for their upcoming fight on the Yangtze River against the army of warlord Cao Cao (曹操), Zhuge knew that Zhou was setting him up for defeat. Nevertheless, he pledged to accept any punishment if he failed to complete the task in three days.
Instead of asking for craftsmen and materials, Zhuge prepared 20 boats covered with a black curtain, each loaded with 30 men and over 1,000 bundles of straw. In the early hours of the third day, under the cover of darkness and screened by heavy fog, Zhuge sent the boats floating toward Cao’s camp on the opposite bank. When they drew near their target, Zhuge’s 600 men began hollering loudly and beating drums, mimicking the sound of an attack. Alarmed, Cao ordered around 10,000 men to shoot arrows at the non-existent horde—all landing harmlessly on the bales of straw.
According to The Romance of Three Kingdoms (《三国演义》), a classic novel of the Ming (1368 – 1644) that dramatized events from this period in history, Zhuge’s troops sailed back before daybreak with over 100,000 arrows. The tale gave rise to the idiom 草船借箭 (cǎochuán jiè jiàn, “borrowing arrows with thatched boats”), which refers to achieving one’s goals by harnessing another person’s strengths. It is commonly cited as evidence of Zhuge’s genius, though historians believe the clever ruse was in fact planned and carried out by Zhou Yu’s boss, the warlord Sun Quan (孙权), in another battle against Cao Cao in 213.
On the Character: 借 is a story from our issue, “Dawn of the Debt.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine. Alternatively, you can purchase the digital version from the App Store.
Dr. Huang Weijia is a senior lecturer in Chinese language at Boston University and a distinguished research fellow at Shaanxi Normal University. He has taught courses in modern and classical Chinese and Chinese culture at Harvard University, Brown University, and the Middlebury College Summer Program. Dr. Huang has authored a series of successful textbooks and reference books in the US, Chinese mainland, and Hong Kong, including the Readings in Chinese Culture series. He has also written numerous articles on cross-cultural and Chinese studies for newspapers and magazines in the US and China.
Tan Yunfei is the editorial director of The World of Chinese. She reports on Chinese language, food, traditions, and society. Having grown up in a rural community and mainly lived in the cities since college, she tries to explore and better understand China's evolving rural and urban life with all readers.
