The idiom story of the praying mantis catching cicadas comes from the Western Han Dynasty Liu Xiang's "Saying Yuan Zhengzhi": "Seeing a cicada, Fang gets the beautiful shade and forgets its body, the praying mantis clings to the yì and fights, sees and forgets its shape; the different finches benefit from it, and see the benefit and forget its truth." ”
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China, the State of Wu wanted to attack the State of Chu, and the timing of the crusade was not good at that time. An old guard tried to persuade King Wu to abandon his campaign against the Chu state, so he walked slowly back and forth in the garden with a slingshot. King Wu asked him what he was doing. He said: "A cicada was calling, and it didn't think that there was a praying mantis behind the cicada trying to catch it. The praying mantis did not expect that there was a yellow finch behind him to bite it. And the yellow sparrow, I didn't realize that I wanted to hit it with a slingshot. Cicadas, praying mantises, and yellow finches did not consider the danger behind them! ”
King Wu was a wise man, and knowing that the old guards were persuading him, he withdrew his decision to attack the Chu state.
[Hint] It's a metaphor for people who are short-sighted and bent on murdering others without knowing that someone is counting on them. In general, "praying mantis catches cicadas, yellow finches are behind" are used continuously.