好逸恶劳
汉朝时代，出现了不少良医，郭玉就是其中一个。
郭玉从小心地善良，看到有病的人痛苦的样子，心里很难受，暗下决心要做一名良医。开始，他读了黄帝的《内经》，又跟当时的名医淳于意学习了诊脉方法、技巧后，便开始了行医生涯。
他背起药包，走家串户。为病人看病，不辞辛苦，精心诊治，人们非常喜欢他。经过一段时间从医越来越感觉自己知识匮乏和医术拙劣，遇到不少疑难病症，无法解 决，深感不安与愧疚。于是，不远千里，去拜师医术高明的程高。程高问：“三百六十行，你为什么要选择当医生？就你医术而言，完全可以过的富裕，活的自在， 为什么还拜师学艺，苦苦钻研呢？”
郭玉告诉他是为治病救人，不为个人衣食时，程高高兴地收郭为徒，悉心传授三年。郭玉医术猛进，一时名声大振。后被汉和帝招入宫中任命为太医丞。
郭玉入宫为官，但不忘百姓，经常为他们治病，妙手回春，挽救了不少垂危病人。但给高官显贵看病时，却发挥不了应有水平，皇帝也深感奇怪。
一次，皇妃病了，郭玉几次用药不见效。皇帝让皇妃换上百姓装束来求医，结果一剂而愈。皇帝问郭玉原因何在。郭玉说：“给皇妃看病时，心理负担很重；又不敢 抬头察看气色，很难准确诊断；另外，贵人弱不禁风，不能随意投药；更重要的是他们贪图安逸，而不劳动与锻炼（即好逸恶劳），也都为治病增加了困难，所以疗 效很差。”
皇帝听了郭玉的话，明白了不少道理。
Addicted to a Lazy Life
This idiom can be used to describe those who are addicted to a lazy life. In Chinese it is “Hao Yi Wu Lao” and, literally translated, it means to love ease and comfort, but to hate work. So, here is the story behind it.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a doctor named Guo Yu. Through his outstanding ability in acupuncture, he cured many of his patients’ illnesses. He was particularly popular amongst the ordinary people, as he tried his very best to treat them and succeeded in helping most to recover from their diseases.
But he didn’t enjoy quite such a high reputation amongst the nobility as most of them found Guo Yu unable to treat their illnesses. Curious about the differences in Guo Yu’s treatment of ordinary and powerful people, the emperor decided to try an experiment on the doctor. He told one of his concubines, who was ill at the time, to dress like an common woman before going to see doctor Guo Yu. The sick concubine did as she was told, and was cured by Guo Yu after a single acupuncture treatment.
This result confirmed the emperor’s suspicions. He therefore went to Guo Yu to ask why there was such a difference. The doctor answered, “ Acupuncture requires a high degree of skill in finding the correct position for the needle. When I am faced with a patient of high social status, I become very nervous. I can’t treat them in the same way I would an ordinary patient. At the same time, they usually live extremely lazy lives, and this also hinders their recovery. ” The emperor could do nothing but nod in reply.
People then derived the idiom “Hao Yi Wu Lao” from the description the doctor used for the slothful nobility. “Hao Yi Wu Lao” literally means to love ease and comfort, but to hate work and can be used for all those who lead a lazy life. If parents want to warn their children against laziness, therefore, they will often resort to this idiom.
(Source:english.cri.cn)
