得寸進(jìn)尺

go too far

得寸進(jìn)尺

During the late Zhanguo period, there were seven kingdoms on the mainland of China. Among the seven kingdoms, the Qin kingdom was the most powerful one. The ruler of Qin wanted to conquer the other kingdoms to be the ruler of all.

戰(zhàn)國(guó)末期，七雄爭(zhēng)霸。其中秦國(guó)最強(qiáng)大，并圖謀統(tǒng)一天下。

The Emperor of Qin intended to attack the Qi kingdom by going through the kingdoms of Han and Wei.

秦昭王準(zhǔn)備越過(guò)韓、魏兩國(guó)打齊國(guó)。

But his subordinate Fan Ju said: "The Qi kingdom is still powerful now and far away from our kingdom.

但策士范雎說(shuō)：“現(xiàn)在齊國(guó)勢(shì)力還算是強(qiáng)大，但離秦國(guó)很遠(yuǎn)。

Even if we win the battle, we must guard the land of Qi by passing through the kingdoms of Han and Wei.

即使打勝了，也必須越過(guò)韓、魏兩國(guó)才能到達(dá)，很難守住。

What if we slowly expand the amount of land we control from here? So we can firmly control every inch of land we conquer. And in the end we will be the ruler."

所以不如慢慢向外拓展，這樣所得的每一寸一尺土地，都 將穩(wěn)穩(wěn)當(dāng)當(dāng)?shù)貫榍貒?guó)所擁有，這樣就能逐漸統(tǒng)一天下了。”

The Emperor adopted his suggestion, and won many battles.

秦昭王便采用了這個(gè)策略，果然在許多戰(zhàn)役中取得勝利。

【文化鏈接】

現(xiàn)在我們通常會(huì)用“得寸進(jìn)尺”來(lái)表達(dá)一個(gè)人“做事做的太過(guò)分”，英語(yǔ)中常用“go too far”,比如：

I didn't mind at first, but now you've gone too far.

起先我并不在意，但現(xiàn)在你已經(jīng)得寸進(jìn)尺了。