不學無術 (Bù xué wú shù)
Lit. without learning or skills (idiom); ignorant and incompetent.
Explanation: Not learned, having no abilities.
In the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the state official Huo Guang was an influential minister at the imperial court and was greatly trusted by the emperor. Before his death, Emperor Wu entrusted his young son Liu Fuling (Emperor Zhao) to Huo Guang for assistance. When Emperor Zhao passed away, Huo Guang made Liu Xun the new emperor (Emperor Xuan). Huo Guang was in control of court power for some forty years, making many great contributions to the Western Han dynasty.
After Liu Xun succeeded to the throne, he made concubine Xu the queen. Huo Guang’s wife, Huo Xian (霍顯), was a covetous [avaricious] woman. She wanted to marry her youngest daughter, Cheng Jun, to Liu Xun so as to make her empress. Thus she took advantage of Lady Xu being sick, and bribed a palace doctor to poison and killed her. The poison plot was discovered, and the doctor was imprisoned. Huo Guang had no knowledge of this matter beforehand, and Huo Xian only told him after the events had taken place. This terrified Huo Guang greatly and he criticized his wife for having committed such acts. He thought about reporting her crimes, but couldn’t bear the thought of his wife being punished, so that he covered up this heinous crime and kept it concealed. After Huo Guang died, someone reported to Emperor Xuan accusations of the crime, whereby the emperor ordered men to investigate the matter further. Huo Guang’s wife heard about it so she discussed countermeasures with people in her household. They decided to gather their clan members and plotted a rebellion, not knowing that words [of the pending revolt] had already leaked out. Emperor Xuan then ordered soldiers to surround the Huo’s mansions, and captured and beheaded everyone in the household.
The Eastern Han historian Ban Gu commented on Huo Guang’s merits and demerits in his “Book of Han – Biography of Huo Guang”, saying that he “was without learning nor skills, being ignorant of the bigger picture”, meaning that Huo Guang did not read, and thus was uneducated, so that he was ignorant of the big picture in his actions.
—– VOCABULARY —–
霍 huò – suddenly [[hoắc: mau chóng, vùn vụt; “Hoắc hoắc” 霍霍 nhoang nhoáng; “Hoắc hoắc” 霍霍 soèn soẹt, như: “ma đao hoắc hoắc” 磨刀霍霍 mài dao soèn soẹt; tên nước thời Xuân Thu, nay thuộc tỉnh Sơn Tây; tên núi, tức “Hành Sơn” 衡山; họ “Hoắc”]]
舉足輕重 jǔ zú qīng zhòng – to play a critical role; influential
深 shēn – deep; depth; deeply; (of a color) dark; deep; rich [[thâm: bề sâu; sâu; thẳm, cách xa, từ ngoài vào trong hiểm hóc khó đi; sâu kín, súc tích; sâu sắc, sâu đậm; thẫm, đậm; lâu; muộn, khuya; tươi tốt, mậu thịnh; nhiêm ngặt, khe khắt; rất, lắm]]
監 jiān – to supervise; to inspect; jail; prison [[giam: coi sóc, thị sát; thống lĩnh, thống suất; cai quản, quản lí; bắt nhốt trong ngục, giữ trong nhà tù; ngục, nhà tù; “giám”: sở quan ngày xưa; quan hoạn; tên chức quan ngày xưa, giữ việc giám sát; tấm gương, thông “giám” 鑒]]
幼 yòu – young [[ấu: trẻ em, trẻ con; yêu thương che chở; nhỏ tuổi; non, mới sinh; nông cạn, chưa thành thục]]
弗 fú – not [[phất: chẳng; trừ khử tai họa cầu phúc]]
陵 líng – mound; tomb; hill; mountain [[lăng: đống đất to, gò; mả vua; lấn hiếp; vượt qua; bỏ nát; lên]]
托付 tuō fù – to entrust
托 tuō – to trust; to entrust; to be entrusted with; to act as trustee; prop; support (for weight); rest (e.g. arm rest); thanks to; to hold in one’s hand; to support in one’s palm; to give; to base; to commit; to set [[thác: bưng, nâng, chống, nhấc; lót, đệm; bày ra; cái khay, cái đế]]
付 fù – to pay, to hand over to, classifier for pairs or sets of things [[phó: giao phó, trao cho; tiêu ra, chi ra; lượng từ – bộ, cặp]]
輔佐 fǔ zuǒ – to assist (usually a ruler)
輔 fǔ – to assist; to complement; auxiliary [[phụ: giúp; xương má; đòn gỗ kèm hai bên xe; tên quan; chỗ đất giáp nhau]]
佐 zuǒ – to assist; assistant; aide; to accompany [[tá: giúp; phụ với người khác ăn uống, khuyến ẩm, phối thực; người giúp đỡ, người phụ trợ; phó, thứ hai, ở địa vị phụ trợ]]
詢 xún – to ask about; to inquire about [[tuân: tra hỏi, hỏi ý nhiều người để quyết nên chăng; tin; đều, bằng]]
掌握 zhǎng wò – to grasp (often fig.); to control; to seize (initiative, opportunity, destiny); to master; to know well; to understand sth well and know how to use it; fluency
握 wò – to hold; to grasp; to clench (one’s fist); to master; classifier: a handful [[ác: cầm, nắm; nắm giữ, khống chế; lượng từ: nắm, bụm]]
勳 xūn – [[huân: công lao; huân chương]]
勛 medal, merit [[huân: công tích, công lao; như 勲]]
妃 fēi – imperial concubine [[phi: vợ của thiên tử, địa vị dưới “hậu” 后; vợ thái tử hoặc vua chư hầu; tiếng tôn xưng nữ thần; một âm là “phối”, sánh đôi, kết hôn; người sánh đôi, phối ngẫu, vợ]]
貪圖 tān tú – to covet; to seek (riches, fame)
買通 mǎi tōng – to bribe
事先 shì xiān – in advance; before the event; beforehand; prior [[tiến triển, tăng tiến]]
驚懼 jīng jù – to be alarmed; to be terrified
懼 jù – to fear [[cụ: sợ hãi; dọa nạt]]
不該 bù gāi – should not; to owe nothing
告發 gào fā – to lodge an accusation; accusation (law) [[cáo giác, mách]]
隱瞞 yǐn mán – to conceal; to hide (a taboo subject); to cover up the truth
瞞 mán – to conceal from; to keep (sb) in the dark [[man: dối, lừa, giấu giếm; đệm, lót, chêm vào; men theo, thuận theo; không bắt mắt, không được chú trọng; dáng nhắm mắt, lim dim]]
策劃 cè huà – to plot; to scheme; to bring about; to engineer; planning; producer; planner
劃 huà – to delimit; to transfer; to assign; to plan; to draw (a line); stroke of a Chinese character [[hoạch: phân chia, quy định, phân giới; mưu tính, thiết kế, trù liệu; rạch, vạch (bằng dao hoặc vật sắc nhọn]]
走漏 zǒu lòu – to leak (of information, liquid etc); to divulge
滿門 mǎn mén – the whole family
抄 chāo – to make a copy; to plagiarize; to search and seize; to raid; to grab; to go off with; to take a shortcut; to make a turning move; to fold one’s arms [[sao: tịch thu; chép lại; đi tắt, đi rẽ; đánh, đoạt lấy]]
功過 gōng guò – merits and demerits; contributions and errors
關乎 guān hū – to relate to; concerning; about