Chinese Idioms: 斬草除根

 I watched the TV series "The Brothers Sun".《孫家兄弟》（The Brothers Sun）

"The Brothers Sun" is an American action comedy streaming series on Netflix.

There are two key points throughout the entire series, 斬草除根 and Churro. So in today's video I want to talk about the idiom: 斬草除根. Not Churro. Churro is available in Taiwan, it's called 吉拿棒.

斬草除根 comes from the "左傳", The Chapter "隱公六年". Click the link below to learn how to use punctuation in Taiwan.

《左傳．隱公六年》

周任有言曰：『為國家者，見惡如農夫之務去草焉，芟夷蘊崇之，絕其本根，勿使能殖，則善者信矣。』

This classical Chinese translation into  English means: "An official of 周 Dynasty said : 'Those who govern a country should treat evil people and things like farmers treat weeds in their fields. Cut off the roots and prevent them from regenerating. Only when evil is eradicated in this way can goodness flourish.' "

As a result, we know that 斬草除根 means that to solve a problem, it must be eliminated at the root completely to prevent the same problem from recurring. So the point is: Don't let it happen again!

So just killing the person in charge is probably useless if you really want to 斬草除根. Because an organization can always find someone to fill the position.

So what exactly is the way or action that can be called 斬草除根？

In ancient China there was a kind of punishment: 族誅。A common saying now because of the dramas is 誅九族(Nine familial exterminations)

誅九族 is a collective form of kinship punishment, typically associated with crimes such as treason, the punishment involved the execution of all of an individual's relatives, which were divided into nine groups. These included: The criminal's 

1. parents
2. grandparents
3. children and their spouses
4. grandchildren and their spouses
5. siblings and in-laws
6. uncles and aunts and their spouses
7. cousins
8. the spouse
9. the spouse's parents.

In different eras, children under a certain age —usually seven— were banished to a cold place or became slaves.

The Emperor will also send people to watch your close friends and colleagues in case they do something to harm the royalty because they want to help you get revenge. This is so-called the action of 斬草除根. Basically, anyone you spend more than a certain time with has to die.

There is one thing I would like to say again. You can definitely buy a churro 吉拿棒  in Taiwan. If someone tells you you can't, please hit him with 油條. 油條 is soft and will not hurt anyone, but 油條 is oily and will make the face, hair, and clothes that come in contact with it greasy.