during the warring states period (475-221 bc), the state of chu not very powerful. the king and the important court officials were dissolute（*的） and incompetent1. they indulged in luxury and excessive pleasure all the time. zhuang xin, one of the ministers foresaw that the country was in *er. one day he remonstrated2 with the king: "your majesty3, wher*r you go, you're always surrounded by people who flatter you with what you like. they try *rything to make you happy so that you forgot to tend to state affairs. if you go on like this, no doubt, the country will perish（毁灭） sooner or later."
the king of chu flew into a rage. "how dare you! you *n use such vicious words to curse my country and mean to arouse resentment4（忿恨） among the people!" zhuang xin explained, "i dare not curse the state of chu. but i really have a premonition（预告） that chu is facing great *er." seeing that the king is especially fond of those corrupt5 officials and trust them in *rything, the minister thought chu is bound to extinct. so he asked the king to let him leave chu. he wanted to go to the state of zhao and stay there for a while.
the king gave him the leave.
five months later, the king of qin sent his troops to invade chu and occupied a large tract6 of its territory. the king of chu himself went into exile. now, the king remembered zhuang xin's words. he sent his men to fetch him. when the king saw zhuang xin again, he asked him, "what can i do now?"
zhuang xin replied, "it's not too late if you mend the sheepfold（羊圈） when you find a sheep is missing." he then made some good suggestions to reha*litate7 the state and recover the lost land. the king was very much pleased.
the idiom "mend the fold after a sheep is lost" has d*loped from zhuang xin's answer to the king.
we still use this metaphor8 to advise someone that *n when he has made a mistake and suffered losses, he can still remedy it by drawing lessons from the mistake.
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