Chinese idiom · 成语
以邻为壑
Meaning
To treat neighbors as a ditch; to harm others for gain.
Character by character
Origin and story
philosophical dialogueIn the Mencius, Bai Gui boasts that his flood-control work surpasses that of the legendary Yu. Mencius rejects the comparison. Yu, he says, allowed water to follow its course toward the seas, whereas Bai Gui treated a neighboring state as a drainage basin. Keeping one area dry by sending the danger elsewhere was not the achievement of a humane ruler. The idiom shortens the passage's wording about making a neighboring country into a ravine. It extends naturally beyond floods: a person, department, or community solves its own difficulty only by transferring the burden or damage to somebody else.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
把所有投诉都推给客服，只是以邻为壑，根本没有解决问题。
Dumping every complaint on customer service merely shifts the burden; it doesn't solve the problem.
Criticizes transferring trouble or harm to others for one's own convenience; not specifically blaming someone for a crime.