三令五申Repeated injunctions

In the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), the famous strategist Sun Wu known as Sun Zi came to see the King of the State of Wu, bringing along his great work The Art of War. He offered to help turn the State of Wu into a more powerful kingdom by training a strong army for it.

The king was not quite convinced and asked, "Can you try your method out on a small army?"

"Yes", Sun Wu answered.

"Can you try them out on some women?"

"Why not?"

Then the king called in one hundred and eighty maids of honor and ordered Sun Wu to train them.

Sun Wu organized the young ladies into two teams and appointed two of the king's favorite concubines to the team leaders. Everyone was given a weapon and stood in line.

Now, Sun Wu asked these women, "do you know how to march forward, backward, to the left and to the right?"

"Yes, we do." They replied.

In spite of this, Sun Wu explained to them in great detail now to march in the four directions. He also told them time and again that they must obey orders and explained why.

Now, Sun Wu beat the drum and ordered the army to march to the right. To his disappointment, the young ladies who had never received military training before did not act as he had ordered but giggled. Sun Wu did not blame them but said in all seriousness: "It's the general's fault if he hasn't made himself clear." He then repeated several times what he had said a moment before.

Now, he beat the drum and gave an order to march to the left. The ladies giggled instead of taking his order. This time, Sun Wu said seriously: "Now the order has been made clear, so that's the leaders' faults not to obey that!" He ordered to behead the two leaders.

The king who was watching the training all the time was shocked and immediately sent someone to plead for mercy for his two concubines. But Sun Wu rejected the pleading. On his insistence, the two-team leaders were executed. Sun Wu appointed two new team leaders and went on with the training. Everybody turned very serious and acted correctly to Sun's orders, just like soldiers. BY bulaiya.com

From then on, the troops of the state of Wu were trained by Sun Wu and became stronger and stronger. From how Sun Wu repeated his orders comes the idiom "Repeating an order time and again".

“三令五申”是我国古代军事纪律的简称，它最早出自《史记·孙子吴起列传》。所谓“三令”，一令观敌之谋，视道路之便，知生死之地；二令听金鼓，视旌旗，以齐其耳目；三令举斧，以宣其刑赏。所谓“五申”：一申赏罚，以一其心；二申视分合，以一其途；三申画战阵旌旗；四申夜战听火鼓；五申听令不恭，视之以斧。“三令”与“五申”的原意是教育将士应该在点阵中或军事行动中明确作战守则。如今，“三令五申”是再三地向下级命令告诫的含义。

谜语
　　三令五申打一人名--猪八戒

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三令五申