The Plum Tree Sacrifices Itself For The Peach Tree-Sacrifice Oneself For Another Person

This idiom comes from a old folk song. The last two stanzas go like this:

One family has five brothers, all serving to a minister as attendants. Every five days, they go back home for a reunion, decorating their horses and garments with shining gold. They vie with each other for ostentation and extravagance, attracting crowds of onlookers along the road.

Now there is a peach tree by a well, and a plum tree next to it. When worms come to gnaw at the root of the peach tree, the plum tree invites them to gnaw at its own root. Finally, the plum dies, ossified.

Even trees know how to sacrifice for other trees, why can't brothers do the same?

李代桃僵

這個成語來自於一首古老的民歌。 歌曲的最後兩段說的是：

一戶人家有兄弟五人，都在一個大官的家中做僕人。每隔五天，他們會回家團聚一次。他們用金子裝飾馬匹和衣服，吸引了許多路人來看。五人互不相讓，相互比較誰的排場大。

如今一口井邊有一棵桃樹，桃樹旁是一棵李樹。有蟲子來咬桃樹的根，李樹便讓蟲子來咬自己的根。最終，李樹變得僵硬，枯死了。

連樹都知道為了別的樹犧牲自己，為什麼兄弟之間反而做不到呢？