12 More Chinese Idioms for HSK 4 Practice

Have clear plan beforehand

Literal: Bamboo ready in heart

This descends from Su Shi's account of the painter Wen Tong of the Northern Song, who held that to paint bamboo (竹) one must first have the finished bamboo complete within the breast (胸有成竹) — and then work fast, before the image fades. The idiom is about the completeness of the mental picture, not a...

Words carry great weight

Literal: Words heavy as nine cauldrons

The nine bronze cauldrons cast by Yu were the physical emblem of the mandate, passed from dynasty to dynasty and impossibly heavy. The Records of the Grand Historian gives the phrase its setting: after Mao Sui talked Chu into an alliance, the Lord of Pingyuan said that Mao's single visit had made Zh...

Practice with determination

Literal: Hear the rooster, rise and drill the sword

Zu Ti and Liu Kun shared a bed as junior officials and shared an ambition to see the north recovered. The History of the Jin records that in the middle of the night Zu Ti heard (闻) a cock (鸡) crowing out of hours — an omen ordinarily counted unlucky — kicked Liu Kun awake and said this is not an evi...

Extremely careful and thorough

Literal: Not careless by a single thread

Not letting a single (一) thread (丝) be done carelessly (不苟). The thread is a unit of measurement rather than a reference to weaving — on the old scale ten 丝 make one 毫, and 丝 itself divides into ten 忽 — so the claim is about the fineness at which the care operates, not about textiles. Late-imperial ...

Make difficult look easy

Literal: Lift heavy as light

To lift (举) what is heavy (重) as though (若) it were light (轻). The phrase belongs to Qing literary criticism, where Zhao Yi used it of Su Shi's poetry: the argument bright, the brushwork sharp, weight carried so easily that reading it you would think no great effort had gone in, when the full force ...

Progress from basic to advanced

Literal: Enter hall reach inner room

Confucius said of his disciple Zilu that he had ascended (登) to the hall (堂) but not yet entered (入) the inner room (室) — competent, and not yet finished. The architecture is doing exact work: a Chinese house put the hall first and the private chambers behind it, so the sequence is fixed and the sec...

Follow clues to solution

Literal: Follow vine find melon

Following (顺) the vine (藤) to feel out (摸) the melon (瓜) at the end of it. The image is agricultural and exact: the melon lies hidden under leaves, but the vine that grew it is in plain sight and leads there. What the phrase specifies is method — you do not search for the melon, you take hold of the...

Wait passively for luck

Literal: Guard the stump, wait for a rabbit

This Warring States period parable tells of a farmer who, after seeing a rabbit die by running into a tree stump (株), waited (待) endlessly for more rabbits (兔) at the same spot. His guard (守) of the stump became a classic example of misguided persistence and inflexible thinking. The story appeared i...

Success comes naturally

Literal: Water comes channel forms

Su Shi wrote it to a friend who was worrying ahead of events: when the water arrives (水到) the channel forms (渠成), there is no need to plan for it in advance. The image is of water finding its own course rather than an engineer cutting one. What the phrase claims is not that effort is unnecessary but...

Make a gift of something that isn't yours

Literal: Borrow flower offer Buddha

The Buddhist life of the Buddha's former births has the young Sumedha, wanting to make an offering to the buddha Dipankara and owning nothing, buy flowers from a girl who gives them on condition that she share the merit. Borrowing flowers (借花) to offer to the Buddha (献佛) is therefore not condemned i...

Create new from old

Literal: Push old produce new

Pushing out (推) the stale (陈) so that the new (新) can come forth (出). The early sense is physical, used of the body and of stored grain long before it meant anything about art or policy: clearing what has gone old to make room. That history settles what the phrase does not mean. The old is displaced...

Complete in one effort

Literal: One drum make spirit

At the Battle of Changshao the strategist Cao Gui held Duke Zhuang of Lu back while the invading Qi army beat its drums, and attacked only on the third. His explanation to the duke afterwards became the phrase: 一鼓作气，再而衰，三而竭 — the first (一) drum (鼓) rouses (作) the fighting spirit (气), the second lets...