墨西哥“破咒”、佛得角逆袭：世界杯的“天时地利人和”，用英文怎么说？

天时地利人和

"Opportune time", which originally referred to the favorable weather at the time of war, now generally refers to various temporal advantages, including weather, timing, opportunity, and so on. "Geographic advantage", which originally referred to advantageous positions in battle, now refers to generally various favorable spacial conditions, including terrain, position, location, and such. "Unity of the people", which originally referred to popular support, unity of all ranks, and societal solidarity, now refers in general to advantages in personnel.

Ancient Chinese believed that these three were the most important factors for success. Among them, "unity of the people" is decisive because "opportune time is not as valuable as geographic advantage, and geographic advantage is not as valuable as unity of the people". The saying reflects the three fundamental dimensions of a problem the Chinese people take into consideration: time (opportunity), space (environment), and people. It reflects the basic notion of putting people at the center of everything.

▌引例

Favorable weather conditions are not as valuable as favorable geographic conditions, and favorable geographic conditions are not as valuable as the unity of the people. (Mencius) 

上下同欲者胜

This is an important concept put forward by Sunzi, the great strategist of ancient China. No matter what their position or level, the people in a state, an army or even a work unit should share the same aspiration, will and goal. Only then can all their wisdom be pooled together and their combat capacity be brought to the full. This concept stresses the importance of human spirit and solidarity, embodying one of the essential Chinese conceptions — "people first".

▌引例

There are five ways to predict victory in a battle. Victory can be achieved by: knowing under what conditions one can or cannot go to a battle; knowing how to use flexible tactics to win a battle based on the number of troops under one's command; when officers and soldiers are united as one; when well-prepared troops attack an unprepared enemy; and when commanders are talented and capable, and the monarch does not interfere. (The Art of War)

奇正

Qi (奇) means surprise while zheng (正) means direct and normal. First advanced by Laozi, the concept has two main meanings. First, it is a military term about two opposing ways of fighting. Zheng means meeting the enemy head-on based on an understanding of its intention，while Qi means keeping one's intention to oneself and launching surprise attack and laying ambush on the enemy in order to secure surprise victory. Zheng and qi need to be applied in a coordinated way.

While a military term, qizheng is also used to deal with daily affairs. Second, as a term of literary and art criticism, it means an article is pure and original in terms of theme and elegant and stylish in terms of diction.

▌引例

A state should be ruled by the normal way, fighting should be conducted in a surprised way, while ideal governance should let people handle their own affairs. (Laozi) 

兵形象水

This military concept was formulated by Sunzi, the ancient military strategist. It means that in directing a battle, one must not adhere to a predetermined plan. Depending on the specific situation, rapid adjustments must be made to make the best use of one's strengths and to avoid one's weaknesses, just as water assumes different shapes as its flow follows the lie of the land. This is what is known today as using flexible tactics and strategies to gain the initiative on the battlefield.

▌引例

Commanding troops should be like the flow of water. Water runs from a high point to a low one. Troops should avoid attacking where the enemy defense is strong but instead attack where its defense is weak. Just as the flow of water is determined by terrain, war fighting should be based on the assessment of the enemy's situation to secure victory. Hence there is no set formation for troops and no set shape for water. The one who can win by understanding the enemy's situation can be called a godlike commander. (The Art of War) 

跟着China Daily

精读英语新闻

“无痛”学英语，每天20分钟就够！

↓↓↓