英国河北微电台 汉学家解析成语——“后来居上”

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成语talk show

第二十二期：后来居上

The Latecomers Surpass the Old-timers

欢迎收听英国河北微电台成语talk show节目，今天我们来给大家讲讲“后来居上”的故事。

汉武帝时，朝中有3位有名的臣子，分别叫作汲黯、公孙弘和张汤。这3个人虽然同时在汉武帝手下为臣，但他们的情况却很不一样。

汲黯进京供职时，资历已经很深且官职也已经很高了，而当时的公孙弘和张汤两个人还只不过是个小官，职位低得很。可是由于他们为人处事恰到好处，加上政绩显著，因此，公孙弘和张汤都一步一步地被提拔起来，直到公孙弘封了侯又拜为相国，张汤也升到了御史大夫，两人官职都排在汲黯之上了。

汲黯这个人原本就业绩不及公孙弘、张汤，可他又偏偏心胸狭窄，眼看那两位过去远在自己之下的小官都已官居高位，心里很不服气，总想要找个机会跟皇帝评评这个理。

有一天散朝后，文武大臣们陆续退去，汉武帝慢步踱出宫，正朝着通往御花园的花廊走去。汲黯赶紧趋步上前，对汉武帝说：“陛下，有句话想说给您听，不知是否感兴趣？”汉武帝回过身停下，说：“不知是何事，不妨说来听听。”汲黯说：“皇上您见过农人堆积柴草吗？他们总是把先搬来的柴草铺在底层，后搬来的反而放在上面，您不觉得那先搬来的柴草太委屈了吗？”汉武帝有些不解地看着汲黯说：“你说这些，是什么意思呢？”汲黯说：“你看，公孙弘、张汤那些小官，论资历论基础都在我之后，可现在他们却一个个后来居上，职位都比我高多了，皇上您提拔官吏不是正和那堆放柴草的农人一样吗？”

几句话说得汉武帝很不高兴，他觉得汲黯如此简单、片面地看问题，是不通情理的。他本想斥责汲黯，可又想到汲黯是位老臣，便只好压住火气，什么也没说，拂袖而去。此后，汉武帝对汲黯更是置之不理，他的官职也只好原地踏步了。

后来者居上，原本是客观事物的发展规律，这就要看我们从哪个角度来看这个问题了。汲黯认为提拔人才一定要论资排辈，反对后来居上，是不可取的。

Hello everyone, this is UK Hebei we radio idiom talk show .I am Frances Wood..the name of the story I will tell you today is: The Latecomers Surpass the Old-timers.

Ji An lived at the time of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.24). He was respected for being upright and just and for daring to speak the truth. He did not bother about small matters in personal behavior and in being an official. He was particular about actual effects and, although he did not cause a stir, he could keep the prefecture he governed in perfect order. Because of this. the imperial court transferred him to the central government from being the prefect of Donghai Prefecture to being a commander in charge of the appointment and dismissal of the local officials.

One time, Emperor Wu said that he would implement the policy of benevolence and justice of Confucianism and would do good things for the people. Emperor Wu was unhappy when Ji An said that there was no need for the emperor to say so. Why should the emperor bother, Ji An said, about pretending to implement the policy of benevolence and justice since he was so greedy and avaricious within himself? This choked the emperor off. The emperor suddenly Changed his countenance and declared the meeting over. All the civilian and military officers at court were breathless with anxiety for fear that Ji An might bring disaster upon himself because of this. After returning, Emperor Wu said to the people around him that Ji An was a little too rude and too straightforward.

For this reason, Ji An was never promoted again. When he was the commander in charge of the appointment and dismissal of the local officials, both Gongsun Hong and Zhang Tang were low -ranking officials of little importance. Later, they were promoted continuously. Gongsun Hong became the prime minister and Zhang Tang became the Imperial censor. However, JiAn's post remained the same.One day, Ji An said to Emperor Wudi that the way the emperor used his ministers was just like piling up firewood, which meant that the latecomers surpassed the old-timers. Of course, Emperor Wu could see that Ji An was complaining. So, turning to his ministers, Emperor Wu said, "It is true that no one can stop learning. You see, Ji An is making more and more indiscreet remarks."

This story comes from The Historical Records. Later generations use the phrase "the latecomers surpass the old-timers " to indicate that successors can exceed their predecessors, which is quite different from the original idea when Ji An said that the latecomers surpassed the old-timers.

英文诵读嘉宾吴芳思早年在中国

Frances Wood was head of the Chinese department at the British Library. Having studied Chinese at the universities of Cambridge, London and Peking, her publications include Did Marco Polo Go To China? (1996), The Silk Road (2003), The First Emperor (2007), and The Diamond Sutra (2010)Wood was born in London in 1948, and went to art school in Liverpool in 1967, before going to Newnham College, Cambridge University where she studied Chinese. She went to China to study Chinese at Peking University in 1975–1976.Wood joined the staff of the British Library in London in 1977 as a junior curator, and later served as Curator of Chinese collections until her retirement in 2013. She was also a member of the Steering Committee of the International Dunhuang Project, and the editor of the Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society. She was also a Governor of Ashmount Primary School for 20 years.An influential argument raised by Dr Frances Wood in her 1995 book was, ‘Did Marco Polo go to China?’ She thinks that the book of Marco Polo (Il Milione) was not the account of a single person, but was a collection of travellers' tales.In May 2012, she appeared on In Our Time on Radio Four, talking about Marco Polo; she appeared again in episodes on Chinese legalism, Confucius, the Silk Road and the Taping Uprising. In December 2012 she appeared on the Christmas University Challenge special as a member of the Newnham College, Cambridge team.She has written a number of books on Chinese history and culture, including Stones of the Wall 1986 (a translation of a novel by Dai Houying), The Blue Guide to China (1990, 2002), Did Marco Polo Go To China? (1995), No Dogs and Not Many Chinese: Treaty Port life in China 1843-1943, (1998), Hand Grenade Practice in China: my part in the Cultural Revolution (2000), The Diamond Sutra: the story of the world’s earliest dated printed book (2010), Picnics Prohibited: diplomacy in a chaotic China during the First World War (2014), Betrayed Ally: China in the First World War (2016) and Great Books of China (2017) and contributed to other works including (with Andrew Lo, Wang Tz’u-cheng and Song Jiayu) Export Paintings in the British Library (2011).

吴芳思是大英图书馆中国部主任。她曾在剑桥、伦敦和北京大学学习中文，出版关于中国历史与文化的著作包括《马可·波罗到过中国吗？》（1995）、《没有狗也没有太多的中国人：1843年至1943年中国的通商口岸生活》（2000）、《丝绸之路：亚洲中心的两千年》（2003）、《紫禁城》（2005）、《中国第一个皇帝》（2007）和《“金刚经”：世界上最早的印刷书籍的故事》（2010）等。她在《马可·波罗到过中国吗？》一书展开讨论，宣传马可·波罗的故事不是一个人的记录，而是一系列旅行者的故事。吴芳思在1977年开始大英图书馆的工作，后来担任中国收藏馆馆长直至2013年退休。她是国际敦煌项目督导委员会成员和东方陶瓷学会交流编辑。

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王利锁，毕业于河北师范大学美术系、北京画院研修班进修，现为河北美术学院教授、国家一级美术师、河北文化名人联谊会顾问、晋州市美协名誉主席。

特别鸣谢： 河北省侨联

总监：源启

Director, Andy

高级编辑：王奕迪

Senior Editor, Yidi Wang

编辑：杨济璠

Editor, Jifan Yang

标识设计：王靖远

Logo Design, Jingyuan Wang

记者：任思睿

journalist, Sirui Ren

实习翻译：威廉·伯德

Translation Intern, William Bird

Guest Broadcaster: Frances Wood

嘉宾播诵：吴芳思

中文主播：赵宇瑛

Chinese Broadcaster: Yuying Zhao

友情诵读：胡劼

Guest  Broadcaster :Jie Hu

顾问：张静

Consultant：Jing Zhang, Jessica, Vivian

Founder: May Zhao

创办人：赵雪湄