Drop The Substance For The Shadow--She Ben Zhu Mo

This Chinese of Drop The Substance For The Shadow--She Ben Zhu Mo is 舍本逐末, and Pin Yin shě běn zhú mò.

One year during the Warring States period, a messenger was ordered by the king of the state of Qi to deliver gifts and a regarding letter to Empress Dowager Wei, the real ruler of the state of Zhao.

Empress Dowager took the letter but did not open it at once. Letting the messenger sit down, she asked him pleasantly:" Communication has been estranged between us two states for a long time. How are the crops growing this year in your state? How is your people's living? How is your king?"

"Your Highness," said the messenger, offended by the Empress Dowager's "inappropriate" greeting, " It is the king of my state who instructed me to call on you, but you don't asked about my king first, on the contrary, you asked about the crops and the people first, and put my king at the end. The great is after the small. It's obvious wrong. "

Hearing this, the Empress Dowager was not angry. Smiling, she said patiently: " Sir, you are wrong. Without food, how can people survive? Without people's support, how can a king keep his power? It is not the disparity between the great and the small, but the distinction between the substance and the shadow. If one only cares about his king and neglects his people, it is so-called 'drop the substance for the shadow'."

The messenger was fully carried along. In shame, he repeatedly said:" You are right.
You are right."

Background and Writer Comment:

The idiom of "Drop The Substance For The Shadow--She Ben Zhu Mo" now refers to attending to trifles and neglect the essentials.