三令五申

In the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), the famous strategist Sun Wu known as Sun Zi came to see the King of the State of Wu, bringing along his great work The Art of War. He offered to help turn the State of Wu into a more powerful kingdom by training a strong army for it.

 

The king was not quite convinced¹ and asked, "Can you try your method out on a small army?"

 

"Yes", Sun Wu answered.

 

"Can you try them out on some women?"

 

"Why not?"

 

Then the king called in one hundred and eighty maids of honor² and ordered Sun Wu to train them.

 

Sun Wu organized the young ladies into two teams and appointed two of the king's favorite concubines（妾） team leaders. Everyone was given a weapon and stood in line.

 

Now, Sun Wu asked these women, "do you know how to march forward, backward, to the left and to the right?"

 

"Yes, we do." they replied.

 

In spite³ of this（尽管如此）, Sun Wu explained to them in great detail now to march in the four directions. He also told them time and again（屡次） that they must obey orders and explained why.

 

Now, Sun Wu beat the drum and ordered the army to march to the right. To his disappointment, the young ladies who had never received military training before did not act as he had ordered but giggled⁴（傻笑）. Sun Wu did not blame them but said in all seriousness: "It's the general's fault if he hasn't made himself clear." He then repeated several times what he had said a moment before.

 

Now, he beat the drum and gave an order to march to the left. The ladies giggled instead of taking his order. This time, Sun Wu said seriously: "Now the order has been made clear, so that's the leaders' faults not to obey that!" He ordered to behead（砍头） the two leaders.

 

The king who was watching the training all the time was shocked and immediately sent someone to plead⁵ for mercy for his two concubines. But Sun Wu rejected the pleading⁶. On his insistence⁷, the two-team leaders were executed⁸. Sun Wu appointed two new team leaders and went on with the training. Everybody turned very serious and acted correctly to Sun's orders, just like soldiers.

 

From then on, the troops of the state of Wu were trained by Sun Wu and became stronger and stronger.

 

From how Sun Wu repeated his orders comes the idiom "Repeating an order time and again".

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