10 Lunar Chinese Idioms for Mid-Autumn Festival

Overestimate oneself

Literal: Small kingdom thinks itself great

Yelang (夜郎) was a small state on the southwestern frontier of the Han empire. The Records of the Grand Historian relates that when a Han envoy reached it, its king asked whether Yelang or Han was the larger — a question that makes sense only to someone who has never left his own valley. The phrase f...

Open threats easier than hidden

Literal: An open spear is easy to dodge

The saying is a matched pair and only works whole: 明枪易躲，暗箭难防 — an open (明) spear (枪) is easy (易) to dodge (躲), a hidden arrow hard to guard against. It belongs to Yuan drama and later vernacular. The visible threat is named in order to be dismissed, so that the concealed one can be the point, and Ch...

Hope appears in darkness

Literal: Dark willows bright flowers

This comes from Lu You's Visiting a Village West of the Mountains, of the Southern Song: 山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村 — where the hills fold and the streams double back and there seems to be no road, the willows darken (柳暗) and the flowers brighten (花明), and there is another village. The turn arrives at the mome...

Gradual accumulation builds up

Literal: Days pile months gather

Piled up (积) by the day (日), accumulated (累) by the month (月). Its usefulness is that it names the timescale rather than the effort — what it describes is not diligence but duration. Chinese uses it in both directions, which is worth noticing. Skill and savings accumulate this way, and so do bad hab...

Perceive tiny details

Literal: See autumn down clear

This descends from the Mencius, where a man claims sight clear (明) enough to make out (察) the tip of an autumn (秋) hair (毫) — the fine down animals grow as the year turns, proverbially the smallest visible thing — yet cannot see a cartload of firewood. Mencius uses it to expose selective attention r...

Small signs show big picture

Literal: One leaf know autumn

This one comes from the Huainanzi of the Han dynasty: 见一叶落而知岁之将暮 — seeing one leaf fall, one knows the year is drawing to its close. From a single (一) leaf (叶) one knows (知) that autumn (秋) has come. The point is inference from a small, ordinary, easily missed particular, not from a dramatic sign. R...

Clear and calm mind

Literal: Clear mirror still water

This metaphor comes from the Zhuangzi, which observes that no one takes their reflection from running water but from water that is still — 人莫鉴于流水而鉴于止水. A clear (明) mirror (镜) and still (止) water (水) both show what is in front of them exactly, and both do so only because nothing is disturbing them. T...

Exceptionally beautiful

Literal: Moon hides flowers shy

This idiom joins two of the Four Beauties. The moon hiding (闭月) belongs to Diaochan, whose beauty was said to make the moon slip behind a cloud; flowers shamed (羞花) belongs to Yang Guifei, before whom the blossoms were said to fold. The other two beauties supply the matching pair 沉鱼落雁, for Xi Shi an...

Work day and night

Literal: Wear stars crown moon

To wear (披) the stars (星) and be crowned with (戴) the moon (月) — a person who leaves before dawn and returns after dark, so that the sky is never light when they are outdoors. The phrase belongs to vernacular literature and is applied to farmers, travellers and students. It differs from ordinary har...

Protect oneself from danger wisely

Literal: Wise person protects self

This comes from an ode in the Book of Songs praising Zhong Shanfu's service to King Xuan: 既明且哲，以保其身 — being both clear-sighted and wise, he thereby preserves (保) himself (身). The one who is discerning (明哲) comes to no harm because he sees things as they are, and the poem has no treacherous court in ...