空城计
The Empty Fort Strategy: Zhuge Liang's famous bluff
Name: ________________ Date: ________
如果敌人有十五万大军，你只有两千五百个士兵，你会怎么办？逃跑？投降？在小说《三国演义》里，诸葛亮选了第三条路：打开城门，坐下来弹琴。
那一次，诸葛亮带了五千个士兵去一座小城运粮食，其中一半已经运着粮食先走了。忽然，报信的人一个接一个骑马赶来：“司马懿带着十五万大军，往这边来了！”城里没有一个能打仗的将军，只有几个文官。大家一听，脸色都变了。
诸葛亮走上城墙一看，远处果然尘土满天。他马上下了几道命令：所有的旗子都收起来；士兵们守在自己的位置上，谁要是随便走动、大声说话，就砍头；四个城门全部打开，每个门口派二十个士兵，穿上老百姓的衣服，低着头扫地。
然后，他穿上一件宽大的长袍，带着两个小孩，坐在城楼上，一边烧香，一边慢慢地弹琴。
司马懿的先头部队到了城下，看见这个样子，谁也不敢往前走。司马懿听了，笑着说不可能，自己骑马到前面去看。果然，诸葛亮坐在城楼上，满脸笑容，一边烧香一边弹琴。城门口那些“老百姓”低着头扫地，好像根本没看见城外的大军。
司马懿越看越怀疑，马上下令：“后队变前队，快退！”
他的儿子司马昭不明白：“会不会是诸葛亮根本没有兵，故意做出这个样子？父亲为什么就这样退兵了？”
司马懿说：“诸葛亮这个人一辈子小心，从来不冒险。现在他把城门大开，里面一定有埋伏。我们要是进去，就上当了。”
就这样，十五万大军退走了。诸葛亮看着他们走远，拍手大笑。身边的官员都惊呆了，问他这是怎么回事。诸葛亮说：“司马懿知道我一向小心，不会冒险，看到这个样子，就怀疑有埋伏。其实我也不想冒险，只是没有别的办法。”说完，他又笑着说：“我要是司马懿，才不会这么快就走呢！”
后来，司马懿回到那座小城一打听，才知道那天城里只有两千五百个兵，什么埋伏都没有。他后悔极了，抬头叹气：“我不如诸葛亮啊！”
这个故事叫“空城计”，非常有名。不过，这件事历史上真的发生过吗？一千五百多年前，历史学家裴松之就指出，那个时候司马懿根本不在那一带，这个故事是假的。可是人们还是喜欢这个故事，一直讲到今天。今天，一个人心里没底，表面上却显得很镇定，中国人就说他在“唱空城计”。中午还没吃饭，肚子咕咕叫，也可以说：“我的肚子在唱空城计了。”
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 小说 | xiǎoshuō | novel; fiction |
| 座 | zuò | constellation; zodiac sign (as in 巨蟹座) |
| 其中 | qízhōng | among them; in it |
| 忽然 | hūrán | suddenly; all of a sudden |
| 道 | dào | to say; to express (as in 说道, 道歉) |
| 要是 | yàoshì | if; in case |
| 全部 | quánbù | all; whole; entire; completely |
| 低 | dī | low; to lower (one's head) |
| 敌人 | dírén | enemy |
| 运 | yùn | games (short for 运动会: 奥运, 亚运) |
| 粮食 | liángshi | grain; food; cereals |
| 位置 | wèizhì | position; place; location |
English (for the teacher)
If the enemy had an army of 150,000 and you had only 2,500 soldiers, what would you do? Run? Surrender? In the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang took a third way: he opened the city gates and sat down to play music.
That time, Zhuge Liang had taken five thousand soldiers to a small town to move grain, and half of them had already left with it. Suddenly messengers came riding in, one after another: “Sima Yi is coming this way with an army of 150,000!” There was not one general in the city who could fight, only a few civil officials. When they heard, everyone's face changed.
Zhuge Liang climbed the city wall to look, and sure enough the sky in the distance was full of dust. At once he gave a few orders: hide every banner; every soldier stays at his post, and anyone who wanders about or talks loudly loses his head; open all four gates, and put twenty soldiers at each one, dressed as ordinary people, sweeping the ground with their heads down.
Then he put on a loose, wide robe, took two boys with him and sat down on the gate tower, burning incense and slowly playing his zither.
When Sima Yi's vanguard reached the walls and saw all this, no one dared go any further. Sima Yi heard the report, laughed and said it couldn't be, and rode up to see for himself. Sure enough, there was Zhuge Liang on the gate tower, all smiles, burning incense and playing. The “ordinary people” at the gates kept their heads down and swept, as if they hadn't even noticed the army outside.
The longer Sima Yi looked, the more suspicious he grew, and he gave the order at once: “Rear guard to the front. Fall back, quickly!”
His son Sima Zhao didn't understand: “What if Zhuge Liang has no troops at all and is just putting on a show? Father, why pull the army back just like that?”
Sima Yi said, “Zhuge Liang has been careful his whole life; he never takes risks. Now he has thrown the gates wide open, so there must be an ambush inside. If we go in, we fall for it.”
And so the army of 150,000 marched away. Zhuge Liang watched them go, clapped his hands and roared with laughter. The officials around him were stunned and asked him what had just happened. Zhuge Liang said, “Sima Yi knows I'm always careful and never take risks, so when he saw all this he suspected an ambush. The truth is I didn't want to take a risk either; I just had no other way.” Then he said, laughing: “If I were Sima Yi, I wouldn't have left so fast!”
Later Sima Yi went back to the town, asked around, and only then learned that there had been just 2,500 soldiers in it that day and no ambush at all. He was full of regret, looked up and sighed: “I am no match for Zhuge Liang!”
The story is called the “empty fort strategy”, and it is very famous. But did it really happen? More than 1,500 years ago, the historian Pei Songzhi pointed out that Sima Yi wasn't even in that part of the country at the time, and that the story was false. But people loved the story anyway, and still tell it today. Today, when someone is unsure inside but looks perfectly calm on the outside, Chinese people say he is “singing the empty fort”. And if it's noon and you haven't eaten and your stomach is rumbling, you can say: “My stomach is singing the empty fort.”