there was an archer1 named geng ying in the state of wei. he went sightseeing with the king of wei at jingtai. at that time a *rd was circling around in the sky, uttering sad and shrill2 cries now and then. the king of wei looked up at it for a while and said to geng ying: "do you see that *rd? can you shoot it down?"
"i can shoot it down without using an arrow," geng ying said.
after a while, the *rd flew near. geng ying pulled his bow to the full, plucked the bowstring, and at the sound the *rd fell to the ground before their feet.
the king of wei said in surprise: "you can shoot down a *rd without an arrow. your skill in archery is really wonderful."
geng ying said: "your majesty3, this is not due to my good skill, but because this is a *rd of bad luck. you can hear how sadly and shrilly4 it wailed5, and see how tiredly it flew. it was already wounded, and for a long time could not find its companion. therefore it couldn't stand the least fright. as soon as i twanged my bow, it thought it had been shot and fell down of its own accord from the sky. what a pitiful *rd frightened by the mere6 twang of a bowstring!"
魏国有位射手名叫更赢。他跟随魏王在京台游玩。这时有一只鸟在空中盘旋，还不时发出凄厉的叫声。魏王抬头看了一会儿，便对更赢说：
“你看见那只鸟了吗?你能把它射下来吗？”
更赢说：“这只鸟，我不用箭就能把它射下来。”
一会儿，那只鸟飞近了，更赢拉满弓，拨动了一下弓弦，鸟就应声落在他们跟前。
魏王惊奇地说：“你不用箭就能把飞鸟射下来，你射箭的技术真高明啊！”
更赢说：“大王，这不是我的技术高明，而是因为这是一只倒霉的鸟。你听它叫得那样凄厉，飞得那样疲乏。它已经负了伤，很长时间找不到伴侣，所以经不起一点点的惊吓。我的弓弦一响，它就以为是被射中了，自己从空中跌落下来，多么可怜的惊弓之鸟啊！”
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