Tricky words: Robbing and crying out at the same time

In addition to the sentence 'While robbing, crying out', there are other corresponding sentences in Vietnamese. We will study these sentences and related Chinese original sentences in turn.

Perhaps the earliest sentence to appear is "While beating the drum, one can rob" (𣃣打𪔠𣃣咹刼), written in Nom script, quoted from Ly Hang's folk song in the book Dai Nam Quoc Tuy (published around 1700 - 1900) copied by Tran Duy Von in 1964.

In 1911, the Revue indo-chinoise illustrée weekly published the phrase "While beating the drum, one robs", corresponding to the French phrase "Dès qu'il a frappé le tambour, il commence à voler" (FH Schneider, p.348).

Half a century later, the saying "Robber while beating the drum" was still popular, especially as recorded in Proverbs and Sayings (1952) by Le Van Hoe (volumes 1 - 3, p.82). From 1970 onwards, there were many sayings "Robber while shouting", specifically in the book Through the stages of literature and art (1955 - 1969) by Dong Hoai, Literature Publishing House, 1970 (p.96) or the book Talking to America by CB, People's Army Publishing House, 1972.

In the Nom script, robbing (劫) means "threatening to take", for example: " Being violent in the streets of the court. Breaking into houses and robbing people's property" ( Dai Nam Quoc Su Dien Ca ). The phrase "While robbing, they shout loudly" refers to someone who does bad things, but shouts loudly as if he is the victim, with the aim of covering up his crime and avoiding responsibility. This phrase sometimes has a variation of "While stealing, they shout loudly", corresponding to the phrase " Tac ham trot tac" (贼喊捉贼) in Chinese - a phrase originating from The Thuyet Tan Ngu - Gia Chuat by Liu Nghia Khanh of the Southern Song Dynasty, a story about a young couple named Wei Wu and Yuan Shao, who often practice chivalry. One night, Wei Wu watched a wedding, he sneaked into the homeowner's garden and shouted: "There is a thief". Everyone in the house ran out to see, Wei Wu entered, drew his sword and robbed the bride. When going out with Yuan Shao and the bride, the homeowner discovered them. Wei Wu shouted "Catch the thief", and the whole group escaped.

Originally the phrase " Thief calls for thief", later this idiom was used to describe bad guys who intentionally cause chaos and distract their target to escape, and also to talk about those who label others as bad guys.

Besides "Tắc Hàm Đề Tắc" , there are other Chinese idioms that are similar in meaning to Vietnamese sentences, such as:

- Dao da yi ba (倒打一耙), meaning "reversing the situation", refers to not only refuting an accusation but also blaming the other party. This idiom is taken from the book Heroes of Women by Wen Kang of the Qing Dynasty.

- "Crazy black and white" (颠倒黑白) is "turning white into black", a metaphor for distorting the truth and creating confusion between right and wrong. This idiom comes from the poem Hoai Sa in the Nine Chapters of Qu Yuan's Warring States period.

- Embezzlement (监守自盗), meaning "embezzlement of public property" or "stealing other people's property", an idiom originating from the Criminal Laws in the Book of Han by Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Finally, it is necessary to mention the antonym of "While robbing, crying out", which is "Dai nhan thu qua" (代人受过), which means "taking the blame for someone else", an idiom originating from the book The Northern Warlords' Domination of the Historical Period by Dao Cuc An, Hainan Publishing House (2006).

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lat-leo-chu-nghia-vua-an-cuop-vua-la-lang-185250509230515427.htm