📖 Meaning
To adopt a conciliatory policy toward enemies and win them over, while attracting distant peoples to submit and pledge allegiance. It describes a governing strategy of using gentle, accommodating methods rather than force to bring adversaries and far-off populations into submission.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Han dynasty scholar Jia Yi's memorial 'On the Accumulation of Grain' (论积贮疏), presented to Emperor Wen of Han. In the essay, Jia Yi argued that with sufficient grain reserves, the state could use soft power to win over enemies and attract distant peoples—asking rhetorically what could not be accomplished with such an approach. The phrase reflects the classical Chinese political philosophy that benevolence and material prosperity can pacify adversaries and draw faraway populations into allegiance, a strategy favored over military conquest.
💡 Example Usage
古代明君常以怀敌附远之策治理天下。
Wise rulers of antiquity often governed the realm with the strategy of winning over enemies and attracting distant peoples.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 怀敌附远
- Pinyin: huái dí fù yuǎn
- Literal Translation: cherish, enemy, attach, distant
- Category: Leadership
- Characters: 4