What does it mean when the mantis stalks the cicada and the oriole follows?

The mantis catches the cicada, but does not know that the oriole is waiting behind it to peck at it. It is a metaphor that he only covets immediate benefits and does not know that someone is plotting against him.

Related allusions:

During the Spring and Autumn Period, annexation wars were often fought between the various vassal states. Once, King Wu was preparing to attack Chu. He summoned his ministers and announced his decision to attack Chu. As soon as the ministers heard the news, they started talking in low voices, because everyone knew that Wu State's current strength was not strong enough, and it should recharge its batteries to make the country rich and its people strong before making other plans.

When King Wu heard the ministers whispering below, and seemed to have objections, he sternly stopped him: "Stop talking, I have made up my mind, and no one can shake me! If anyone insists on it, Stop me and I won’t let you go easily!”

The ministers looked at each other and no one dared to say a word. At that time, there was an upright young attendant in the court. After leaving the court, he still couldn't feel at peace. He felt that King Wu was too hasty in doing so, but he didn't know how to persuade King Wu to give up the idea of ??attacking Chu.

So the attendant was pacing back and forth in King Wu's back garden, thinking of ways to do it. At this moment, his eyes accidentally fell on a cicada on the tree, and he immediately had it. idea.

At dawn the next day, the young attendant came to the back garden where King Wu was resting. He held a slingshot and walked around under the tree. On the third morning he wandered under the tree again, and on the fourth and fifth mornings he wandered around like this. Someone thought his behavior was strange, so he told King Wu about it.

On the morning of the sixth day, the young attendant came again, and King Wu also came, and asked him: "What are you doing in this garden for several mornings in a row? Your clothes are soaked with dew." "What are you going to do?"

The young attendant held a slingshot in his hand and said softly to King Wu: "Your Majesty, please be quiet. Look up at the tree. There is a cicada just looking at it. He was happily sucking the dew, but he didn't realize that there was a praying mantis hiding behind him, bending his forelimbs, trying to catch it!" King Wu smiled and said, "What's so strange about a mantis catching a cicada?"

The young attendant said: "Look, Your Majesty, the mantis wants to catch the cicada, but it doesn't know that there is a yellow bird behind it, stretching its neck and staring, trying to peck it." King Wu Said: "What does this mean?" The young attendant put the slingshot in his hand on the clay ball and pointed it at the oriole, and then said: "The oriole was only looking at the cockroach, but he didn't know that my slingshot was already aimed at it. .

Cicadas, mantises, and oriole all only saw their own immediate interests, but did not think of the danger behind them!" When King Wu heard this, he suddenly realized what he meant by the young attendant. , canceled the plan to attack Chu.

The meaning of the idiom:

From ancient times to the present, whether it is the struggle between princes for hegemony, the melee between warlords, or the disputes between the court and cliques, you can see the mantis stalking the cicada, the oriole behind, and the people. The phenomenon of mutual strife. This fable written by Zhuangzi vividly reflects Zhuangzi's mentality of being frightened by dangers that are always approaching, and the image reflects the social reality of mutual strife that Zhuangzi felt.

Faced with this reality, Zhuangzi believes that we should not forget the shape when we see it, and forget the truth when we see the benefit. In the cruel political struggle, do not only see the benefits, only the gains, but protect yourself at all times. When you have immediate benefits at your fingertips, you must always be alert that someone may be plotting against you behind your back.