King Chulin, the king of the state of Chu, was very found of officials with slender waists.

　　So in order to curry1 favor with（巴結(jié)，拍馬屁） the king, all the officials strived to control the amount of food they had. Some of them even had only one meal a day.

　　And they would take a deep breath before they fasten their clothes cinctures. As a result of doing this, they could only stand up with the support of their hands against the wall.

　　One year later, all the court officials became wan2 and sallow（氣色不好的） and looked terrible.

　　楚國(guó)的國(guó)君靈王是非常喜歡腰身纖細(xì)苗條的朝臣。

　　于是，大臣們?yōu)榱擞懞盟计疵刂谱约旱娘埩?，甚至每天只吃一頓飯。

　　他們系衣帶之前，都要長(zhǎng)嘆一口氣，然后才束緊腰帶，這樣一來(lái)往往要扶著墻壁才能站起來(lái)。

　　一年之后，滿朝文武都因節(jié)制飲食而變得枯黃瘦癟，不堪入目。