Carrying Faggots to Put Out a Fire

In the late Warring States Period (475-221BC), the State of Qin attacked the State of Wei, occupying large areas of land. In 273 BC the Qin army launched another attack on the State of Wei more vigorously than ever.

The worried king of Wei summoned his officials to see if anyone could propose a way to defeat the Qin army. After years of chaos caused by wars, the officials trembled at the mere thought of war, and no one dared to respond. When a large enemy force encroached on the border, the officials persuaded the king to plead for peace in exchange for the large area of land north of the Yellow River and south of the Taihang Mountain.

However Su Dai, a counselor, disagreed. He hurried to the king and said:

Your Majesty, they don't think about the interests of the country at all. It is just because they are cowards and afraid of death that they ask you to beg for mercy by betraying the country. Of course you can temporarily satisfy the ambitions of the Qin, but the king is insatiably greedy. They will never stop assaulting us until our land is completely lost. Once there was a man whose house was on fire. People told him to put out the fire with water but he would not listen. Instead, he carried a faggot to put out the fire that only made the fire fiercer. He didn't know that instead of putting out fire faggots only make it burning more vigorously. Isn't it the equivalent of carrying faggots to put out a fire if you ask for peace at the cost of the land of Wei?"

Although Su's argument was very convincing, the king accepted the suggestion made by the officials and gave a large area of the land of Wei away to the Qin. The king of Wei was coward and only cared for peace at that moment.

As might be expected, the Qin army again assaulted the State of Wei in 225BC. They surrounded the capital city of Daliang and flooded it by digging up the Yellow River dykes. The State of Wei was finally destroyed by the State of Qin.

The idiom means to adopt a wrong method to solve a situation and end up making it worse.