10 Chinese Idioms With Surprising Hidden Meanings

Foresee big from small signs

Literal: See small know large

The Han Feizi observes that the sage sees (见) the minute (微) and thereby knows what is sprouting, sees the beginning and thereby knows the end — to catch the small sign is to know (知) the large development (著) it precedes. The skill named is not prediction but attention: the evidence was there the w...

Trace back to source

Literal: Chase root trace source

To chase (追) the root (本) and trace (溯) the source (源). Both halves are the same instruction in different terrain, one botanical and one riverine, and 溯 specifically means moving against the current — the work is upstream and harder than going with it. That is the sense the phrase carries: not merel...

Hide evil behind sweet words

Literal: Mouth honey belly sword

Li Linfu ran the Tang court for nineteen years by agreeing warmly with everyone and destroying them afterwards. The Comprehensive Mirror records the verdict of his contemporaries: Li Linfu has honey (蜜) in his mouth (口) and a sword (剑) in his belly (腹). The organs are not decorative — Chinese physio...

Hide malice behind smile

Literal: Hide knife in smile

This descends from accounts of Li Yifu, a chancellor under the Tang, who was mild in manner and unfailingly courteous, and who destroyed anyone who crossed him. Contemporaries said he carried a knife (刀) hidden (藏) inside (里) his smile (笑). It is also the tenth of the Thirty-Six Stratagems. The smil...

All theory no practice

Literal: Discuss war on paper

Zhao Kuo had his father's books by heart and could out-argue him on tactics; his father said that war is a matter of life and death and the boy spoke of it far too easily. Qin's agents spread word that the only Zhao general they feared was Zhao Kuo, Zhao replaced the cautious Lian Po with him, and a...

Speak without meaning it

Literal: Words not from heart

The Zuo Zhuan observes that where trust does not come from within — 信不由中 — pledges are worthless however elaborately they are dressed up. Words (言) that do not proceed (不由) from what is inside (衷) may be perfectly courteous and still mean nothing at all. The phrase is about the gap between what is s...

Contradict oneself

Literal: Spear shield contradict self

Han Feizi tells of a man of Chu selling weapons who said of his shields that nothing could pierce them, and of his spears that there was nothing they could not pierce. A bystander asked what would happen if one of his spears were used against one of his shields, and he had no answer. Hence spear (矛)...

Decadent luxury lifestyle

Literal: Paper drunk gold confused

A Song collection tells of the physician Meng Fu, who fitted out a small room at home with gilded furnishings and paper so bright it dazzled; a guest who dozed there said afterwards that resting in it left a man gold-dazed and paper-drunk — 此室暂憩，令人金迷纸醉. The gold (金) and the papered walls (纸) are lit...

True nature eventually revealed

Literal: Fox's tail

In Chinese fox lore the fox that takes human form is betrayed by the one part of the disguise it cannot manage: the tail (尾巴). The phrase is used of the detail that gives someone away rather than of deception in general, and it usually appears in the construction 露出狐狸尾巴, to let the fox's tail show. ...

Professed love hiding actual fear

Literal: Lord Ye loves dragons

Lord Ye (叶公) loved (好) dragons (龙): they were on his belt-hooks, on his chisels, carved through the rooms of his house. The real dragon heard of it and came, put its head in at the window and its tail into the hall, and Lord Ye ran with his wits gone. Liu Xiang tells it against a ruler who said he w...