一将功成りて万骨枯る
晩唐の曹松の言葉である。一人の将軍の輝かしい功績の裏には、多くの兵士の犠牲があることを言っている。この言葉より数百年前の中国の戦国時代の末期に、秦に白起という将軍がいた。この将軍こそタイトルの言葉に相応しいように思う。
彼が向かうところ敵なしの状態であった。彼は、戦国七雄の一つである趙との長平の戦いでは、降伏した趙兵四十余万人を穴埋めにして殺したという。
彼は秦で大出世をしたが、彼の昇進を怖れた秦の宰相と不和になり、秦王から死を命じられて自害している。
彼は自害するとき、秦王に死を命じられた事を喜んでいたかも知れない。
When one general is successful, many many soldiers are dead.
These are the words of Cao Song of the late Tang Dynasty. It means that behind one general's brilliant achievements are the sacrifices of many soldiers. Hundreds of years before this phrase was mentioned, at the end of the Warring States period in China, there was a general named Bai Qi in the Qin dynasty. I think this general deserves the words of the title.
Wherever he was headed, there were no enemies. It is said that during the Battle of Changping against Zhao, one of the seven great kingdoms of the Warring States period, he dropped into the big hole over 400,000 Zhao soldiers who had surrendered and killed them.
Although he rose through the ranks in Qin, he fell out with the prime minister of Qin, who feared his promotion, and was ordered to die by the king of Qin, so he committed suicide.
When he committed suicide, he may have been glad that the King of Qin ordered him to die.
