Chinese idiom · 成语
李代桃僵
Meaning
Plum replaces peach in death; to sacrifice one for another.
Character by character
Origin and story
literaryAn old yuefu song, Cockcrow (鸡鸣), preserved in the Yuefu Shiji (乐府诗集) and the Book of Song (宋书), ends with an arresting comparison. A peach tree grows beside an uncovered well, with a plum tree nearby. When insects attack the peach's roots, the plum withers in its place. The song contrasts this imagined solidarity between trees with brothers who forget one another.
The plants act within a moral image, not a botanical observation. From the line about the plum dying for the peach came 李代桃僵. Later usage broadened beyond brotherhood to one person or thing taking another's place, particularly bearing a loss or blame that would otherwise fall on someone else.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
出了问题就让实习生李代桃僵，替经理承担责任，这不公平。
Making an intern take the fall for the manager when something goes wrong is unfair.
Literary; often involves substitution at someone's expense, including taking another person's blame.