置之死地而后生

置之死地而后生:

Literally means:

confront a person with the danger of death so that he will fight to live; seek way out of a dilemma

Actually means:

置 (zhì), put or place. 置 (zhi) is a pronoun used as the object of 置 (zhì), and it refers to somet hing or someone mentioned before. 死地, a one will die if he does not fight or struggle survive.

This phrase literally means in a battle, the army is dispatched to a place without any way of die unless fighting courageously, thus they are stimulated to fightng gainst the enemy and seek survival. It figuratively means if one's leeway is denied beforehand, he will be determined to achieve success.

置，放。之，代词，作“置”的宾语，用来代替前面的提到人或事。死地，这里指不奋力求生便会死亡的境地。

置之死地而后生，打仗时把军队布置在没有退路，不拼死作战便会灭亡的地方，以便激发兵士奋勇杀敌，求得生存。比喻事先断绝退路，就能下定决心，取得成功。