草船借箭
cǎo chuán jiè jiàn
to use a clever trick to get what you need from the other side
Character by character
草cǎo
straw
straw
船chuán
boats
boats
借jiè
borrow
borrow
箭jiàn
arrows
arrows
Example
我们没钱做广告，就借对手的热度宣传自己，来了个草船借箭。
We had no money for advertising, so we rode on our rival’s publicity to promote ourselves: borrowing arrows with straw boats.
Tone: positive (praise).
Usage and origin
In chapter 46 of the novel 诸葛亮 sends twenty straw-lined boats into the fog, and 曹操’s archers fill them with over 100,000 arrows. An early source tells a similar story about 孙权’s boat at 濡须 in 213.
Learn this in Lesson 89 · HSK 6–7: 三国：历史与小说 (The Three Kingdoms: history and the novel)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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