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Carrying Faggots to Put Out a Fire
In the last years of the Warring States period, the State of Qin attacked the State of Wei on a large scale repeatedly and occupied large areas of land, for the State of Wei was too weak to defend itself. In 273 B.B., the qin army launched another attack upon the State of Wei with a momentum1 more vigorous than ever. The king of the State of Wei summoned his officials,and asked with a worried look if anyone could propose a way to defeat the Qin army. After years of chaos2 caused by the wars,the officials trembled when fighting was mentioned, and no one dared to speak ofresistance. At the critical moment when a large enemy force was bearing down upon the border, most of the offinials persuaded the king to sue for peace, at the cosplayt of giving away to the State of Qin the large area of land north of the Huanghe River and south of the Taihang Mountain. However Su Dai, a counsellor, did not agree. He hurried up to the king and said:Your Majesty3, they don't think about the interests of the country at all.It is just because they are cowardly and afraid of death that they ask you to sue for peace by betraying the country. Of course you can temperarily satisfy the ambition of the king of the State of Qin is insatiably greedy. It will never sTOP assaulting us until our land is totally given away.once there was a man whose house was on fire. People told him to put out the fire with water, but he would not listen. Instead, he carried a faggot to put out the fire, only to make the fire fiercer. That was because he didn't know that,instead of putting out the fire, faggots could only make it burning more vigorously. Isn't it equivalent to carrying faggots to put out a fire if you agree to sue for peace at the cosplayt of the land of the State of Wei?Though Su Dai's argument was very convincing, the king accepted the suggestion of those officials and gave away to the State of Qin a large area of the land of the State of Wei. For the king of the State of Wei was cowardly and only cared for peace at the moment.As might be expected,the Qin army assaulted the State of Wei on a large scale in 225 B.C.,surrounding the capital city Daliang and flooding it by digging open the dykes4 of the Huanghe River.The State of Wei was finally destroyed by the State of Qin.This story appears in the Historical Records Written by Sima Qian.The set phrasecarrying faggots to put out a fireis used to mean adopting a wrong method to save a situation and ending up by making it worse.
战国末期，秦国向魏国接连发动大规模的进攻，魏国无力抵抗，大片土地都被秦军占领了。到公元前273年，秦国又一次向魏国出兵，势头空前猛烈。
魏王把大臣们召来，愁眉苦脸地问大伙有没使秦国退兵的方法。大臣们因为历经多年的战乱，提起打仗就吓得哆嗦，哪个也不敢谈抵抗二字。在这大兵压境的危急时刻，多数大臣都劝魏王，用黄河以北和太行山以南的大片土地为代价，向秦王求和。
谋士苏代听了这类话，非常不以为然，忙上前对魏王说：大王，他们是由于自己胆小怕死，才让你去卖国求和，根本不为国家着想。你想，把大片土地割让给秦国虽然暂时满足了秦王的野心，但秦国的欲望是无止境的，只须魏国的土地没割完，秦军就不会停止进攻大家。
说到这里，苏代讲了一个故事：以前有一个人，他的房屋失火了，其他人劝他快用水去浇灭大火，但他不听，偏抱起一捆柴草去救火，是由于他不会柴草不但不可以灭火反而能助长火势的道理。大王若赞同拿着魏国土地去求和，不就等于抱着柴草救火吗？
尽管苏代讲得头头是道，但胆小的魏王只顾眼前的太平，还是依大臣们的建议把魏国大片土地割让给秦国。到公元225年，果然秦军又向魏国大举进攻，包围了国都大梁，掘开黄河大堤让洪水淹没了大梁城，魏国终于被秦国灭掉了。
故事源于《史记魏世家》。成语抱薪救火比喻用错误的办法去消灭祸害，结果反而使祸害扩大。
