there was, a man who came to the palace of the state of chu and gave the guard a kind of medicine for immortality2 to be presented to the king.
as the guard held the medicine in both hands and walked towards the inner palace, he met an archer3 of the bodyguard4. the archer asked him: "is what you hold in hands edible5?"
the guard answered: "of course, it is."
upon hearing this, the archer *ed the medicine, stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed it.
the king of chu was very angry. he ordered to have the archer beheaded. the archer said:
"it is not my fault but the fault of the guard, because he told me 'it is edible.' "
then he continued: "this is a medicine for immortal1 life. now i have taken it, but i am going to be killed by your majesty6. then, the so-called medicine for immortal life will become `a medicine hastening death', won't it? the man who presented this medicine was trying to deceive your majesty."
finally he said: "if today your majesty should kill me, an innocent man, then people would say: `the king would rather be deceived than beli* his own bodyguard.'"
while the king of chu heard this, he felt that there was something in what the archer said, so he let him go.
有一个人来到楚国王宫，把一种长生不死的药交给守卫官，请他敬献给国王。
守卫官捧着药朝内宫走去，迎面碰上卫队的一个*手。*手问他：“你手里捧的东西，人可以吃吗？”
守卫官回答：“人可以吃。”
*手听了，一把夺过药，塞到嘴里就吞了下去。
楚王非常生气，下令将这个*手斩首。*手说：“这不是我的过错，而是守卫官的过错，因为他回答我‘人可以吃。’”
又说：“这是不死之药，现在我吃了，反而要被大王处死；那么，这不死之药，不就成了‘催死之药’了吗?这是献药的人在欺骗大王呀！”
*后说：“今天，如果大王*了我这个无罪的人，那么众人就会说:‘大王宁愿被人欺骗，也不愿意相信自己的卫士。’”
楚王听了，觉得这些话有点道理，就把*手放了。
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