A person of the state of Qi heard that Tian Ying, the king of the State of Jin wanted to expend¹ the city wall of his vavasory Xue.

 

He then told a story of a big sea fish to Tian Ying, "There is a big fish in the sea. There is no net could catch it, no hook to haul it, nobody dares to bother it. One day it stranded² on the beach and could not move. Now even ants and mole³ crickets could eat it the way they wish.

 

To Your Majesty⁴, state Qi is like the sea. And Qi has protected you for a long time. So there is no need to build city wall in Xue. If state Qi was conquered, then it wouldn't help even if there was a very high city wall here." After hearing this story, Tian Ying stopped the plan to build the city wall.

 

一个齐国人得知靖国君田婴想在封地薛城扩建城墙的消息。

 

特地对田婴讲了一个大海鱼的故事：“城里有一条大鱼，渔网捕不住它，鱼钩也拖不动它，谁也不敢招惹它。一天，它不小心被潮水搁在海岸上，动弹不得。这时，骷髅和蚂蚁都可以想怎么吃它便怎么吃它。

 

如今的齐国对您来说就像海水一样，您多年得到齐国的庇护，还用得着在薛地筑城吗？如果齐国灭亡了，即使薛城筑得上顶青天，还不是一样无济于事吗？”田婴听了这个故事，马上终止了薛地筑城的计划。

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