鹿死谁手

鹿死谁手

东晋的时候有个商人名叫石勒。他住的地方，因为天灾，很多人都没饭吃，也不能做生意。他到处找不到工作，整天没吃饭，饿得实在受不了，就把自己卖给有钱人家当奴隶。

石勒的主人看他仪表很不平凡，过了一段日子，就还给他自由。他后来就投效到另外一个酋长刘渊的部下。刘渊建立了汉国。多年以后，石勒背叛了汉国，自己做了皇帝，他建立的国家是当时十六国中国势最强的。石勒非常得意。有一次在很多人的面前夸口说：“假如我和汉国的皇帝出生在同一时代，我一定要和他在中原比一比高下，成功夺得王位的还不知道是谁呢。”

At whose hand will the deer die

During the Eastern Chin dynasty (dōng jìn 东晋), there lived a merchant named Shr Le. When the area in which he lived was struck by natural disaster, Shr Le was forced out of business. Unable to find work, he had nothing to eat, and when he was so hungry that he could stand it no longer, he sold himself as a slave to a wealthy family.

Shr Le's master, seeing that his appearance was not like that of an ordinary man, soon let him go free. Shr Le then went and offered his services to another man, named Liou Yuan, who established the kingdom of Han. Several years later, Shr Le betrayed the kingdom of Han, and himself became the emperor of the most powerful kingdom of his time. Shr Le was extremely proud of himself, and once boasted in front of many people, "If I had been born at the same time as the emperor of Han, I most certainly would've had it out with him to see who was the real man. And we all know who would've wound up on throne!"

Today, when two parties are competing and it is still unclear who will win, one of the two competing parties may use the idiom "At Whose Hand Will The Deer Die" to express confidence in his own ability.