Capture the thief first and capture the king comes from the ancient poem "Nine Poems Before Leaving the Fortress·Sixth".
Original text:
The bow should be drawn with strength, and the arrow should be used with length. To shoot a man, shoot a horse first; to capture a thief, capture the king first. There is also a limit to killing people, and all countries have their own borders. If you can control the invasion of the mausoleum, how can you kill more people?
Translation:
When you draw a bow, you must draw the hardest one, and when shooting an arrow, you must shoot the longest one. To shoot a man, you must first shoot a horse; to capture a thief, you must first capture their leader. There must be limits on killing, and every country has its borders. As long as we can stop the enemy's invasion, is it just to kill more people?
Appreciation:
The author is Du Fu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. The poet first wrote nine poems of "Crossing the Fortress", and then wrote five poems of "Crossing the Fortress"; add "qian" and "hou" to show the difference. "Qian Chu Fortress" is about the current events of Ge Shuhan's conquest of Tubo in the last years of Tianbao. It is intended to satirize Tang Xuanzong's aggressive military campaigns. This chapter was originally listed as the sixth poem and is one of the more famous ones. ?
The first four lines of the poem are very similar to the battle hymns popular in the army at that time. They are quite charming, full of rationality and interesting, and are very popular in discussions. Therefore, Huang Sheng said that it is "like a ballad, like a proverb, and the most wonderful place in Yuefu". Two "dang" and two "first", witty words and inspiring thoughts, put forward the key to the combat steps, emphasizing that the troops must be strong, the morale must be high, there must be strategies to deal with the enemy, and wisdom and courage must be used together.
The four sentences are arranged in a row, like a collection of family treasures, like a summary of combat experience. However, looking at the whole article, it is not the main theme of the work, but just a lining for what follows.
Reference for the above content: Baidu Chinese-Nine poems from Qian Chusai·Sixth