望梅止渴 (wang4 mei2 zhi3 ke3)
During the
Three Kingdoms era in
Chinese history, the General-King Cao Cao (曹操) reigned over the state of Wei 魏. He was a
despotic ruler, so much so that some
compared him with the Devil. The story relating to this
Chinese proverb originates from him.
Being an
alpha male, Cao Cao had developed a good
acumen for motivating others to do his will. He was leading his armies to war
yet again, when the men faced the problem of
water shortage. It was a
dire situation and his citizens were
literally dragging their feet to the battlefield, their
tongues swelling in their
parched mouths. At this very moment King Cao, an
orator comparable to
Winston Churchill, came up with his
winning statement.
"There's a sour plum
glade up ahead. When we reach there we will be able to eat of the fruits to
quench our
thirst."
In other accounts, he was also said to have
remarked:
"There's a
lady who's as
beautiful as a fairy there, and whoever reaches the battlefield first will get her hand in
marriage."
Upon hearing their
commander's statement, the men began to
salivate uncontrollably. (I hope it was for the
plums, not the lady, since there was only one of her to go around, poor girl.) This moisturised their mouths, and
enabled the
troops to reach the battlefield in
record time.
Whether they
actually reached the sour plum forest or if there was such a lady was never
recorded.
Today, this
proverb is used to refer to
aspirations that are out-of-reach, and the
space cadet who prefers to
dream rather than face
reality.