Life Philosophy Chinese Idioms

Many twists and turns

Wang Xizhi, writing on brush method, said that in making a single wave-stroke (一波) the brush turns three times (三折) — the long diagonal that ends a ch...

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Return to righteousness

Turning away (改) from what is wrong (邪) and returning (归) to what is right (正). The force sits in 归: rightness is treated as the place a person came f...

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Shirk effort by preference

To love (好) ease (逸) and hate (恶) toil (劳). The two verbs are the point: this is not laziness as a failing of will but as a preference, something the ...

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Push far enough and it turns

When a thing (物) reaches its extreme (极) it must (必) turn back (反). The formula is put most plainly in the Lüshi Chunqiu, which argues that the ruler ...

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Misfortune might be a blessing

The Huainanzi tells of a man living out by the frontier, known ever since as the Old Man of the Frontier — 塞翁, from 塞, a border pass, and 翁, an old ma...

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Advantage from close connections

Su Lin, a minor officer under Fan Zhongyan, was passed over while Fan promoted others around him, and presented a couplet instead of a complaint: 近水楼台...

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Overestimate oneself

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...

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Good and evil deeds repaid in kind

Cause (因), effect (果), and the returning repayment (报应). The vocabulary is Buddhist and entered Chinese with the translated sutras, bringing with it a...

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Surrounded by hostility

This poignant idiom originates from the final battle of Xiang Yu in 202 BCE. Surrounded by Han forces at Gaixia, Xiang Yu heard songs (歌) of his homel...

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Prepare before problems arise

This one comes from the Book of Songs, where a bird strips mulberry roots to bind (绸缪) its window and door before (未) the rain (雨) comes. The bird is ...

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Overly fearful and suspicious

After the rout at the Fei River, Fu Jian's enormous army broke and ran, and the History of the Jin says that the sound (声) of the wind (风) and the cry...

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Console with false hopes

On the march, Cao Cao's army lost the track to water and the whole force was parched. He announced that a great plum wood lay ahead (望梅), heavy with f...

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Autumn wind and dew; autumn scenery

Golden (金) wind (风) and jade (玉) dew (露) — the autumn wind and the first cold dew, named in the colours of precious things. Qin Guan's lyric fixed the...

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Run out of tricks

Liu Zongyuan's fable has no donkeys in Guizhou (黔) until a meddler ships one in and turns it loose on a hillside. A tiger sees this huge thing, takes ...

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Fortune finally turns your way

The hour arrives (时来) and the luck turns (运转). Both halves assume a wheel: fortune in this vocabulary is not distributed but cyclical, so a bad stretc...

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Repeated by enough people, a falsehood passes for truth

This is from the Discourses of the States, paired there with another line: many hearts make a city wall, and many mouths (众口) melt (铄) metal (金). Gold...

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Deceive by substitution

This is the twenty-fifth of the Thirty-Six Stratagems: stealing (偷) the beams (梁) and swapping (换) the pillars (柱) while the building still stands. Th...

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Sudden dramatic change

Wind (风) and cloud (云) changing (变) abruptly (突). The pairing is the Chinese shorthand for the state of the sky, and by extension for the state of aff...

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Hide evil behind sweet words

Li Linfu ran the Tang court for nineteen years by agreeing warmly with everyone and destroying them afterwards. The Comprehensive Mirror records the v...

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Wait passively for luck

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 ra...

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Things happen when ready

When the melon (瓜) is ripe (熟), the stem (蒂) drops (落) of itself. The observation is agricultural and precise: a melon taken early has to be pulled, a...

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Hide malice behind 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 cr...

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Make a gift of something that isn't yours

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 flo...

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Hope appears in darkness

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...

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Live as a recluse in the wild

To pillow (枕) on stone (石) and rinse (漱) in the stream (流) is the standard image of the recluse who has declined office and lives off the mountain. It...

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Perfect peaceful place

Tao Yuanming's account of the peach (桃) blossom spring (源) has a fisherman follow a stream through a grove, squeeze through a gap in the rock and come...

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Bring trouble upon oneself

To draw (引) the fire (火) and have it burn (烧) yourself (身). The phrase describes an action aimed outward that returns on the person who took it, and C...

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At home anywhere

The four seas (四海) taken as one's home (家). It appears in the Records of the Grand Historian, in a builder's justification of an enormous palace: the ...

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Small problems cause disaster

The Han Feizi observes that a dyke a thousand zhang long is breached through the burrow of ants and crickets. An ant's (蚁) hole (穴) ruins (坏) the dyke...

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Fierce competition between equals

Bian Zhuangzi meant to kill two tigers that were fighting over an ox, and was told to wait: the big one will be hurt and the small one killed, and he ...

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Live as a recluse in the wild

Sun Chu, meaning to say he would pillow on stones and rinse in the stream (枕石漱流) — the standard image of the recluse — got it out backwards as pillowi...

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Needlessly suspicious

Ying Shao's Comprehensive Meaning of Customs tells of a guest who saw a snake (蛇) in the wine he had been handed, drank it out of politeness, and went...

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Very rare

Sparse (寥) as (若) the morning (晨) stars (星) — the few still visible once the sky has begun to lighten, when almost the whole field has gone out. The c...

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Fates linked together

This metaphor comes from the Zuo Zhuan, in the Spring and Autumn period. Jin sought permission to march through the small state of Yu in order to atta...

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All talk no substance

To boast and boast (夸夸) in one's (其) talk (谈). The doubling is what carries the judgement — a single 夸 is simply to praise or to exaggerate, and repea...

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Extremely urgent

Pressing (迫) at (在) the brow (眉) and lashes (睫). The measurement is the point: the gap between eyebrow and eyelash is a few millimetres, so the phrase...

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Too much to take in

Eyes (目) with no (不) leisure (暇) to attend to (给) it all. The construction blames the abundance rather than the observer, which is what distinguishes ...

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Fail due to giving up near the end

This one comes from the Book of Documents: 为山九仞，功亏一篑 — in raising a mound nine ren high, the work (功) fails (亏) for one basket (篑) of earth. Everythin...

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Observe troubles from safe distance

To watch (观) the fire (火) from across (隔) the bank (岸). It is the ninth of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, where the advice is precise: when the enemy's in...

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Feel overwhelmed by greatness

In the Zhuangzi, the Lord of the Yellow River, proud of his swollen autumn flood, travels east until he reaches the North Sea and can find no end to i...

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Decadent luxury lifestyle

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 ...

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Utterly impossible to escape

Even fitting (插) wings (翅) on would not make escape possible (难飞). It belongs to vernacular fiction, where it describes a surrounded fugitive rather t...

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Completely helpless without options

Hands (手) bound (束) and no (无) plan (策) left. The binding is figurative and the helplessness is intellectual: nothing is preventing the person from ac...

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Protect oneself from danger wisely

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 pr...

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Fickle and manipulative

This descends from Du Fu's Ballad of Poor Friendship: 翻手作云覆手雨 — a turn of the hand makes cloud (云), a turn back makes rain (雨). The poem is about the ...

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Deeply and permanently affected

Cut (刻) into the bone (骨) and inscribed (铭) on the heart (心). 铭 is specifically the verb for casting an inscription into bronze, so both halves name p...

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Boundless natural beauty and romance

Wind (风) and moon (月) without (无) bound (边) — the two standing together for natural beauty and, by extension, for romance. The phrase is the answer to...

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Brief, fleeting appearance

The 昙花 is the night-blooming cereus, which opens after dark, holds for a few hours and is finished by morning. Buddhist writing had already used a flo...

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Deliberately distort truth as power display

Zhao Gao, holding the Qin court after the First Emperor's death, brought a deer (鹿) before the young emperor and, pointing (指) at it, called it (为) a ...

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Come to an abrupt halt

戛然 is a sound-word — a hard, clean noise, used of a bird's cry — and 而止 is what follows it: and then it stopped. The parsing matters, because the pair...

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Powerful unstoppable momentum

Ten thousand (万) horses (马) at full gallop (奔腾). Chinese uses 万 as an intensifier rather than a count, and what the image supplies beyond mere numbers...

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Innocent bystanders suffer from others' problems

The full saying is 城门失火，殃及池鱼 — the city gate (城门) catches fire (失火) and the calamity reaches the fish in the moat, because the water is drawn off to f...

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Observe hastily and superficially

This descends from Meng Jiao's poem on passing the imperial examination: 春风得意马蹄疾，一日看尽长安花 — with the spring wind at his back and the hooves quick, he s...

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Spread widely and rapidly on its own

Kong Rong, urging a friend's release, wrote that pearls and jade come to a man without having legs (无胫) because people want them. The four-character f...

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Restless, unfocused mind

The heart (心) as a monkey (猿), the mind (意) as a horse (马). The pairing comes out of Buddhist writing on meditation, where the two animals name two di...

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Ineffective and inconsequential

Neither (不) painful (痛) nor (不) itchy (痒) — a sensation too slight to register as either. Applied to criticism or to effort it is dismissive: the thin...

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Worry needlessly about impossible disasters

The Liezi tells of a man (人) of Qi (杞) who feared (忧) the sky (天) would fall and the earth give way, and stopped eating and sleeping over it. A friend...

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Exhausted from excessive talking

Mouth (口) dry (干) and tongue (舌) parched (燥). The phrase is physical before it is figurative and describes the specific state produced by talking for ...

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Entranced in dreamlike state

Like (如) drunk (醉) and like (如) dreaming (梦). The doubled 如 keeps both comparisons at arm's length: the person is in neither state, and the phrase des...

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Exist in name only

The name (名) survives (存), the substance (实) has died (亡). The 名/实 pair is one of the oldest problems in Chinese thought — whether words still fit the...

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Superficial impression without depth

Floating (浮) light (光) and glancing (掠) shadow (影) — reflections moving on water, and the shadow of something passing overhead. Neither is the object,...

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Anxious and unsettled

Seven (七) up (上), eight (八) down (下). The Water Margin gives the source as a two-part folk saying — fifteen buckets drawing water from a well, seven g...

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Youthful despite old age

Hair (发) white as a crane's (鹤) with the face (颜) of a child (童). Both halves are drawn from Daoist longevity literature, where the crane is a standar...

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Passing fakes as genuine

Fish eyes (鱼目) mixed in with (混) pearls (珠). A dried fish eye is round, pale and superficially convincing, which is the entire basis of the comparison...

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Broadly satisfactory, better than feared

Emperor Guangwu, told that his general Wu Han was still ordering his troops while everyone else was dispirited, said 吴公差强人意 — Wu rather rouses one's s...

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Actions cannot be undone

This descends from the story of Jiang Ziya, whose wife left him during his years of poverty and sought to return once he had risen. He poured a basin ...

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Hiding problems worsens them

The story is in the Han Feizi. The physician Bian Que told Duke Huan of Cai three times that illness (疾) was spreading in him, and each time the duke ...

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Creativity permanently dried up

Jiang Yan was the outstanding writer of his generation and then, in middle age, simply stopped producing anything good. The History of the Southern Dy...

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Extreme caution in risky situations

This descends from the Book of Songs: 战战兢兢，如临深渊，如履薄冰 — trembling and cautious, as if standing at the edge of a deep gorge, as if treading (履) on thin ...

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Leniency encourages worse behavior

姑息 is indulgence of the temporary, accommodating kind — the Book of Rites contrasts loving someone with virtue against loving them with 姑息 — and the p...

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Empty promises satisfy nothing

Emperor Ming of Wei, telling Lu Yu how to pick men for office, said not to choose by reputation: a reputation is like a cake drawn on the ground, and ...

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Unable to hide amusement

忍俊 is holding back a smile — 俊 here has the sense of amusement rising in the face rather than its usual meaning of handsome — and 不禁 is being unable t...

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Unable to stop dangerous course

With the campaign against Su Jun faltering, Wen Qiao argued in council with Tao Kan that there could be no turning on the heel: 骑猛兽，安可中下哉 — having mou...

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Forced to act against will

The body (身) not (不) governed (由) by oneself (己). The phrase is about compulsion rather than weakness, and 身 is doing careful work: it is the physical...

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Vast crowds of people

People (人) as mountains (山), people (人) as sea (海). The construction repeats 人 rather than joining the two landforms, which is what gives it its rhyth...

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Success in theory not reality

Wealth and rank (富贵) that exist on paper (纸上) and nowhere else. The phrase is patterned on 纸上谈兵 — "discussing warfare on paper," the phrase for Zhao K...

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At peak of youth's ability

The point at which somebody's bearing and talent (风华) are in fullest flower (正茂). Unlike most entries here it is modern rather than classical, and owe...

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Extreme paranoia sees threats everywhere

At the Battle of the Fei River in 383 CE, Fu Jian of the Former Qin led an enormous army against the far smaller forces of the Eastern Jin. Surveying ...

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Superficial observation without depth

This descends from Meng Jiao's poem on passing the imperial examination: 春风得意马蹄疾，一日看尽长安花 — with the spring wind at his back and the hooves quick, he s...

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Creating unnecessary troubles for oneself

This is from the New Book of Tang, on the official Lu Xiangxian, who held that the world is fundamentally without trouble and that mediocre people (庸人...

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Natural selection eliminates the unfit

The superior (优) prevail (胜), the inferior (劣) are washed out (汰). This is not a classical idiom: it entered Chinese in the late Qing through Yan Fu's...

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Steadily increasing as time passes

Increasing (增) together with (俱) the days (与日). What makes it precise is 俱: the growth is not merely over time but in step with it, one increment per ...

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Contentment with what one has brings happiness

The Daodejing supplies the thought in several places: there is no calamity greater than not knowing when one has enough, and the contentment that know...

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Cherish something too much to put it down

To love (爱) it and not (不) let it go (释) from the hand (手). The phrase is about the body rather than the feeling: what it describes is a physical fail...

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Choose simpler pleasures over status displays

This is from the Strategies of the Warring States, where the scholar Yan Chu declines the patronage of King Xuan of Qi. Offered position and a carriag...

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Live peacefully and work happily

Settled in one's dwelling (安居) and content in one's work (乐业). The pairing covers the two halves of an ordinary life, house and livelihood, and Chines...

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Completely safe and unharmed through danger

The Strategies of the Warring States has the Queen Dowager of Zhao receive an envoy from Qi and, before she has broken the seal on his letter, ask him...

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Absolutely stable and unshakable

Steady (安) as (如) Mount Tai (泰山). Tai is the easternmost of the five sacred peaks and the one emperors climbed to report to heaven, so invoking it is ...

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Weathered profound life transformations

沧桑 is short for 沧海桑田, the blue sea and the mulberry fields. Ge Hong's account of the immortal Ma Gu has her mention, in passing, that since entering s...

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Constant dread; unable to stop worrying

The heart (心) hoisted up (提) and the gall bladder (胆) left swinging (吊). Chinese physiology puts courage in the gall, so the phrase names both organs ...

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Complete disorganization and messiness

Chaotic (乱) seven (七) eight (八) and a mess (糟). The seven-and-eight construction is Chinese shorthand for disorder, and a popular etymology connects t...

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Lost in thought with a contemplative expression

As if (若) there were (有) something (所) being thought about (思). The construction is careful and does the work: it describes an appearance rather than ...

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Deserted and lifeless atmosphere

Li Qingzhao opens one of the most famous lyrics in the language with a run of doubled sounds — searching and searching, cold (冷冷) and clear (清清), deso...

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Completely without reason or provocation

Without (无) connection (缘) and without (无) cause (故). 缘 is the Buddhist term for the conditions that link one thing to another, and the double negatio...

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Completely free and unrestrained

A pairing of self-determination (自由) with unhindered being (自在). It belongs to Chan Buddhist recorded sayings rather than to the Zhuangzi, though the ...

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Profound transformations over time

This comes from the account of the immortal Magu, who remarks that she has three times seen the eastern sea turn to mulberry fields — the blue sea (沧海...

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Continuously emerging in endless succession

Layers (层) emerging (出) without (不) exhaustion (穷). The image is stratified — one thing appearing from behind another, repeatedly, with no visible end...

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Perfectly satisfying every expectation

Matching (称) the heart (心) and according with (如) the intention (意). The two halves are not redundant: 心 is what a person feels and 意 is what they mea...

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Completely stunned or dumbfounded

This one comes from the Zhuangzi, on a trainer who spends forty days preparing a fighting cock. At each stage the bird is still too spirited; only at ...

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Most urgent priority requiring immediate attention

Mencius says that the wise know everything, and yet treat what the present business (当务) requires as the urgent thing (之急); the benevolent love everyo...

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All varieties of wildlife in nature

Flying (飞) birds (禽) and running (走) beasts (兽). Wang Yanshou's Han rhapsody on the Lingguang Hall supplies the line, describing the carved figures in...

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The slightest sign of disturbance

Wind (风) blows (吹) and the grass (草) moves (动). A Dunhuang narrative of Wu Zixu in flight gives the phrase its setting, and the setting is the point: ...

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A place's environment together with its customs

Tang Dynasty travel writers developed this comprehensive framework for documenting regional culture through climate/customs (风), geography (土), people...

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Completely free from worry or concern

In the Strategies of the Warring States, Feng Xuan tells Lord Mengchang that a wily rabbit has three burrows and only just escapes with its life, and ...

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Deeply entrenched and difficult to change

This comes from the Laozi, on deep roots and a firm base as the way of long life — 深根固柢. A plant whose roots run deep (根深) and whose stem is firmly se...

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Demand exceeds available supply

Supply (供) cannot (不) meet (应) demand (求). This is modern economic vocabulary rather than a classical idiom, and it is worth learning as such: it belo...

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Explode in extreme anger or rage

Anger as fire (火) rising (冒) three zhang (三丈) high — roughly ten metres, in a unit that makes the claim absurd on purpose. It belongs to vernacular fi...

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A drop in the bucket; negligible amount

Writing to Ren An, Sima Qian said that had he submitted to the law and been executed, it would have been the loss of a single (一) hair (毛) from nine (...

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A bewildering variety; all kinds of

This idiom has roots in ancient Chinese military strategy, where 'five flowers' (五花) referred to five tactical formations and 'eight gates' (八门) to ei...

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Acting on a sudden impulse or whim

The heart's blood (心血) coming in like a tide (来潮). The physiology is that of Chinese medicine, where the heart governs the blood and also the mind, so...

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Essentially the same with minor differences

The Zhuangzi preserves Hui Shi's distinction: things broadly alike and slightly unlike he called the small sameness-and-difference, and the fact that ...

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A hidden paradise; unexpected inner beauty

洞天 is a Daoist term of art: the grotto-heavens, a set of worlds held to exist inside particular mountains, with their own light and seasons, reached t...

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Helpless; having no alternative

Without (无) any (可) way of dealing with it (奈何). 奈何 is itself a question — how is this to be handled — so the phrase says there is no answer to the qu...

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To lose everything; complete failure

The hen (鸡) gets away (飞) and the eggs (蛋) are broken (打) in the grab. The arithmetic is the whole point: the person did not merely fail to gain, they...

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With great interest and enjoyment

津 is saliva, or any moisture that wells up; doubled, 津津 is the mouth watering. With flavour (有味) attached, the phrase describes engagement at the leve...

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Overjoyed; pleasantly surprised

Joy (喜) that comes out (出) beyond (外) what was being looked for (望). 望 is both hoping and the act of looking into the distance, so the phrase places t...

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Extremely restless and anxious

Unable to settle (不安) either sitting (坐) or standing (立). The phrase reports posture rather than feeling, and that is where its force comes from: the ...

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Perfect weather; favorable conditions

A gentle (和) wind (风) and a fine (丽) sun (日). Both halves are moderate on purpose — 和 is harmonious rather than strong, 丽 is lovely rather than blazin...

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Constantly anxious about gains and losses

Confucius, in the Analects, asks whether a mean man can be served with in the government of a state: before he has got the thing he is anxious about g...

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Naturally; as a matter of course

What principle (理) makes (所) properly (当) so (然). 理 is the grain or pattern of a thing, the reason it is as it is, so the phrase claims that something...

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Dejected; dispirited

Head (头) hanging (垂) and spirit (气) gone out (丧). 气 is breath and vitality at once, so the second half names something visible — a person who has defl...

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Unexpected; unforeseen

What thought (意想) does not (不) reach (到). The construction locates the failure in the observer rather than in the event — the thing was not improbable...

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In a dilemma; caught between difficulties

Difficult (为难) to the left (左) and difficult to the right (右). What it names is not indecision but a structural trap: both options are real, both have...

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Moved by the sight of something familiar

A scene (景) touched (触) upon, and feeling (情) comes up (生) out of it. The order of the characters is the argument: the outside comes first and the emo...

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Feeling as if ages have passed

Vaguely (恍) as if (如) a whole age (世) lay between (隔). 世 is a generation or an era, and Buddhist usage gives it the further sense of a separate lifeti...

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Things turn out contrary to expectations

Ji Kang, awaiting execution in the third century, wrote 事与愿违，遘兹淹留 — affairs (事) ran counter (违) to what I wished (愿), and so I have come to this confi...

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False alarm; scare for nothing

An empty (虚) fright (惊), one (一) entire scene (场) of it. 场 is the measure word for a performance or a bout of weather, and using it here is the joke: ...

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Closely related; intimately connected

Breath (息) by breath (息), mutually (相) bound (关). 息 is one respiration, the smallest unit of being alive, so the phrase claims connection at that gran...

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Ever-changing; constantly varying

A thousand (千) changes (变) and ten thousand (万) transformations (化). The numbers are conventional rather than counted, and the two verbs are not synon...

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Extremely popular for a time

Wind (风) laying the grass flat (靡), for a time (一时). The image descends from a line about the people bending before a ruler as grass bends before wind...

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Take in everything at a glance

One (一) sweep of the eye (览), and nothing (无) left over (余). 余 is the remainder, what is left once everything has been accounted for, so the claim is ...

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Feeling carefree and happy

Fan Zhongyan's Yueyang Tower essay describes a visitor who, on a clear day with the lake calm and the birds settling, finds the heart (心) opened out (...

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At a loss; not knowing what to do

Not (不) knowing (知) where (所) to put (措) oneself. The fuller form behind it is in the Analects — 无所措手足, no place to put hand or foot — and that bodily...

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Over a long period of time

Long (长) years (年) and piled-up (累) months (月). Both halves say duration and neither adds information, which is the point: the redundancy is doing rhe...

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Unprecedented; never seen before

Nothing before (前) this has (有) ever (未) been like it — 所 is the classical nominaliser holding the clause together, so the shape is that which has not...

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Hard-pressed; financially stretched

The Zhuangzi describes Zengzi in poverty: he had not made a coat in ten years, and when he straightened his cap the chin-strap snapped, when he pulled...

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Have nothing to do; be idle

There is nothing (无所) one is occupied with (事事). The doubling is grammatical rather than emphatic: the first 事 is the verb, to attend to, and the seco...

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Enjoyed by all; universally popular

Glad (喜) to hear (闻) it and pleased (乐) to see (见) it. The two verbs cover the channels an audience receives things through, which is why the phrase a...

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Add insult to injury; make things worse

Frost (霜) added (加) on top of (上) snow (雪). Both are the same cold expressed twice, and that is the precision of it: the second misfortune is not a di...

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More to take in than one can keep up with

Wang Xianzhi said that travelling the road through Shanyin, with the hills and rivers throwing the light back at one another, left a person 应接不暇 — no ...

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So common as to attract no attention

Liu Yuxi, back in the capital after his provincial posting, was entertained at the house of Li Shen, himself lately relieved of a regional command; si...

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Let nature take its course

Going along with (顺) the way things are of themselves (自然). 自然 is literally self-so, what a thing is when nothing is being done to it, and the phrase ...

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Overwhelming pressure bearing down

Mount Tai (泰山) pressing (压) down on the crown of the head (顶). Tai is the mountain Chinese reaches for whenever weight is wanted — it is the standard ...

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Vastly different; poles apart

The Zhuangzi's wording is 大有径庭 — there is a great deal of 径庭 about it — where 径 is the footpath outside a door and 庭 the courtyard within, the gap bet...

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Reap what one sows; suffer consequences

To eat (食) the fruit (果) of one's own (自) tree (其). The metaphor is agricultural and its force lies in the ownership: the fruit is not a punishment se...

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Unable to move forward at all

Unable to walk (难行) so much as an inch (寸) of a step (步). 寸步 is the smallest movement that still counts as moving, so the phrase denies not progress b...

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Can't wait; eager

Pressed (迫) so hard that one cannot manage (不及) to wait (待). 不及 is a failure to reach something in time, so what is described is waiting that has been...

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In perfect order; well-organized

井然 is the orderliness of the character 井 itself — a grid of intersecting lines, the shape the classical well-field system laid over farmland — so a pa...

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At a loss; flustered

Hands (手) and feet (足) with nowhere (无) to be put (措). The Analects supplies the ancestor — 无所措手足, said of people under a government whose rules make ...

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Beyond endurance; can't take it anymore

To have borne it (忍) until there is nothing (无) further that can (可) be borne (忍). The repetition of 忍 is the whole structure, and it does something c...

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Shocking; deeply disturbing

To strike (触) the eye (目) and startle (惊) the heart (心). The two clauses put the impact in sequence — the sight arrives and the body answers — which i...

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Extremely ashamed; wish to disappear

No (无) ground (地) in which to put (容) oneself (自). 容 is to hold or contain, so the image is of the earth declining to make room: there is nowhere to s...

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Continuous flow; never-ending stream

Rivers (川) flowing (流) without (不) pause (息). The line is from the Thousand Character Classic, which generations of children learned by heart, so it r...

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Changing rapidly; improving daily

New (新) by the day (日), different (异) by the month (月). The phrasing echoes the basin inscription quoted in the Great Learning — 苟日新，日日新，又日新, if you c...

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Completely silent; so quiet you could hear a pin drop

Neither crow (鸦) nor sparrow (雀) making a sound (无声). The two birds are chosen for being the commonest and least ceremonious noise in a Chinese street...

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Extremely busy; inextricably involved

Unable (不可) to get free (开交). 开交 is to disentangle and separate, and the phrase survives only in the negative — nobody is ever 可开交. It began with comb...

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Calculate carefully; be frugal and precise

Reckoning (打) finely (精) and calculating (算) in detail (细). Both verbs are ordinary arithmetic words and the two adverbs do the work, insisting on the...

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Too slight to weigh at all

So slight (微) that it is not (不) enough (足) to speak of (道). The construction sets a threshold — there is an amount below which a thing does not merit...

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Involuntarily; can't help but

Not (不) proceeding from (由) one's own (自) control (主). The grammar puts the person outside the action: something happened and they were not the one di...

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Utterly bored; at loose ends

A hundred (百) ways of having nothing (无) to lean on (聊赖). 聊赖 is what one depends on to get through the time, and 百 exhausts the possibilities — every ...

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Wishful thinking; one-sided assumption

Willingness (情愿) on one (一) side (厢) only. 厢 is a wing or side chamber of a building, and the spatial figure does precise work: the feeling is real, i...

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Target of public criticism

The target (的) that many (众) arrows (矢) are aimed at. 的 is the bullseye — the same character that now does duty as the commonest particle in the langu...

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Cling to the old and outdated; resist progress

Liu Xin, arguing with the court scholars over which versions of the classics should be taught, accused them of clinging (抱) to what was damaged (残) an...

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Refuse to move beyond past methods

The standard form writes the first character 故, meaning old or former — the old (故) steps (步) one keeps taking, with oneself (自) sealed in (封). It is ...

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Feel anxious and uneasy

忐 and 忑 are 上 and 下 written over 心 — heart up, heart down — which is about as literal as Chinese characters get, and it is the best thing about the ph...

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Feel at ease with a clear conscience

The heart (心) at rest (安) because the reasoning (理) holds up (得). The two halves stand in a stated relation: the calm is not a temperament but a conse...

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Become carried away by success

So pleased (得意) as to forget (忘) the shape one cuts (形). 形 is the body, one's outward form, so what is lost is not dignity in the abstract but awarene...

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Look happy and content

A face (面) filled (满) with spring breeze (春风) — the look of someone whose good humour is visible before they speak. The comparison is to weather rathe...

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Return to one's roots; go back home

Fallen (落) leaves (叶) returning (归) to the root (根). The botany carries the argument: the leaf drops at the foot of the tree that made it and goes bac...

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Hard to leave one's homeland

Old (故) ground (土) is hard (难) to leave (离). 故土 is the earth one comes from, and 故 is the character in 故乡 and 故人 — what is old and one's own, rather t...

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Prefer stability; reluctant to relocate

The Book of Han calls it the nature of the common people: 安土重迁 — settled (安) on the land (土) and treating a move (迁) as a weighty matter (重). 重 is rea...

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Peace everywhere; universal harmony

The four seas (四海) — classical Chinese for everywhere, the world being bounded by them — rising into (升) peace (平). 升平 is a set term for an era in goo...

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Golden age of peace and prosperity

A great (太) peace (平) and a flourishing (盛) age (世). 太平 is a term with real weight behind it — the condition of order a dynasty existed to produce, an...

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National peace and public security

The state (国) in right order (泰) and the people (民) secure (安). 泰 is the Yijing hexagram of things standing in proper relation, heaven and earth in co...

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Prosperous people and powerful nation

The people (民) wealthy (富) and the state (国) strong (强). The order of the halves is the argument: prosperity in the population comes first and nationa...

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Travel a great distance

A thousand (千) li (里), with 迢迢 for the distance — a character meaning far which, doubled, means far in a way that is felt. The reduplication is the wh...

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Genuine sincerity brings results; a faithful heart makes wishes come true

The heart (心) being sincere (诚), the thing then (则) answers (灵). 灵 is the word used of a prayer that is heard, an oracle that proves true, a remedy th...

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Joy at its height turns to grief

Chunyu Kun, who served King Wei of Qi and knew better than to lecture him directly, was asked how much he could drink. It depended, he said, and worke...

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Hope after hardship

否 and 泰 are two hexagrams of the Book of Changes, standing opposite each other: 否 is obstruction, heaven and earth pulling apart so that nothing commu...

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Misfortunes come together

Disasters (祸) do not (不) travel (行) singly (单). It belongs to the fatalistic stock of everyday speech, and it is usually completed by its other half, ...

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Good luck does not repeat

Liu Xiang's Garden of Persuasions has the older form — 福不重至，祸必重来, blessings do not come twice, misfortunes certainly come again — which settled into t...

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Benefit from adversity

The thought is a commonplace of Warring States argument — that the same event is a disaster or a windfall depending on where you are standing in time,...

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Contentment in any situation

Meeting (随) whatever circumstance one encounters (遇) and being at ease (安) in it. It belongs to later vernacular and essay writing rather than to the ...

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Focus on true aspirations

Zhuge Liang wrote it to his son in the letter known as the Admonition to My Son, near the end of his life: without stillness and few desires there is ...

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Tranquility leads to success

This is the second half of the same sentence Zhuge Liang wrote to his son, whose first half became 淡泊明志: without quiet (宁静) there is no reaching (致) t...

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Embrace authenticity

In the Strategies of the Warring States the scholar Yan Chu turns down a king's patronage and takes his leave, and the chapter closes with a verdict o...

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Wisdom in humility

Su Shi wrote it in a formal note to Ouyang Xiu on his retirement: great courage looks like timidity, great wisdom (大智) looks like (若) foolishness (愚)....

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Gentle conquers strong

The root is the Daodejing, which insists repeatedly that the soft and weak overcome the hard and strong, and offers water as the case in point — nothi...

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Like attracts like

The parent line is in the Book of Changes — 方以类聚，物以群分, things gather by kind and divide by group — and the Warring States gave it an illustration in C...

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Like-minded association

The half everyone quotes is 物以类聚，人以群分 — things gather by kind, people (人) divide (分) into groups (群). The first part descends from a line in the Book ...

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Truth will emerge

Su Shi supplies the image in the second of his Red Cliff rhapsodies, returning to the river in winter: the mountains high, the moon small, the water f...

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Different perspectives

The Book of Changes says of the Way that the benevolent see it and call it benevolence, the wise see it and call it wisdom — the humane (仁) see (见) on...

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Establish maturity

Confucius sets out his life in stages in the Analects: 吾十有五而志于学，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命 — at fifteen bent on learning, at thirty (三十) standing (立), at forty...

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Be content avoid shame

The Daodejing puts it in chapter 44, after asking whether fame or your own person is dearer: 知足不辱，知止不殆 — knowing when you have enough keeps you from d...

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Perseverance conquers all

The idiom 天下无难事 (tiān xià wú nán shì) is commonly used in classical Chinese literature to express the idea that nothing in the world is inherently dif...

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Accept human flaws

Usually said as one half of 金无足赤，人无完人 — gold is never wholly pure, no person (人) is a complete (完) person (无). The pairing does the argument: purity i...

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Learn from mistakes

Commonly used in classical Chinese, the idiom 吃一堑长一智 (chī yī qiàn zhǎng yī zhì) conveys the idea that experiencing setbacks (吃一堑, chī yī qiàn) leads t...

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Moral decline

Hearts (人心) are not (不) as they were in antiquity (古). The sentiment is older than any particular formulation of it, and every era has produced its ow...

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Inconstancy of relationships

炎 is scorching and 凉 is cool, and the phrase applies both to the weather of human affairs (世态): warmth while you are useful, coolness when you are not...

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Unseen influence

Yan Zhitui, writing family instructions in the sixth century, observed that the young take their manners, speech and habits from those around them wit...

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Complex emotions

The New Account of Tales of the World records Wei Jie, fleeing south during the collapse of the Western Jin, coming to the Yangtze and looking out at ...

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Fickle and inconsistent

The Zhuangzi tells of a monkey keeper who, running short, told his monkeys they would have three acorns in the morning (朝三) and four at night (暮四). Th...

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Look after yourself only; ignore the rest

Mencius states it as a pair: 穷则独善其身，达则兼善天下 — in obscurity, perfect yourself alone; in success, extend that good to the world. The first half was never...

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Regain vitality

The phrase belongs to Daoist longevity literature, where reversing (返) age (老) and returning (还) to childhood (童) was not a figure of speech but the s...

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Peace and prosperity

Winds (风) in measure (调) and rains (雨) in season (顺). It is agricultural before it is anything else, and precise about what farming actually needs — n...

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Turn over a new leaf after wrongdoing

The Records of the Grand Historian tells of Chunyu Yi, sentenced to mutilation, whose youngest daughter Tiying travelled to the capital and petitioned...

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Disunity in action

Each (各) does (行) what they (其) think right (是). The final character is the trap for learners: 是 here means right or correct, not the copula, so the p...

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Unable to cover everything at once

Attend to (顾) this one (此) and lose (失) that one (彼). The phrase names a specific failure mode rather than general carelessness: not neglect, but the ...

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Unrealistic aspirations

To be fond of (好) the high (高) and chase (骛) the distant (远). Song neo-Confucian writing uses it as a complaint about students who find the near and l...

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Reckless extravagance

Scattering (挥) gold (金) like (如) dirt (土). The Song writer Mao Pang used it in a funeral piece for a friend whose openhandedness was the point of the ...

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Repent and be saved

Buddhist teaching supplies the picture: the sea of suffering is boundless, and the shore is behind you — 苦海无边，回头是岸. To turn the head (回头) is (是) the s...

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Indecision, double-dealing

A foot (脚) planted (踏) in two (两) boats (船) — usually said in full as 脚踏两只船. The image does its own arguing: the position is possible only while the b...

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Unnecessary complications

Zhu Xi used it complaining about how people read: a branch (枝) sprouting (生) outside (外) the joint (节), growth in the wrong place that draws strength ...

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Enhance existing beauty

Adding flowers (添花) onto brocade (锦上), which is already patterned with them. Song poets used the image, and its whole force comes from the phrase Chin...

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Fear from past trauma

Geng Lei told the King of Wei he could bring down a bird without an arrow. A goose came over, he plucked the empty bowstring, and it dropped. Asked ho...

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Conceited about one's own merits

To sit on (居) one's merit (功) and be arrogant (自傲) about it. Chinese history supplies a standing example in Xu You, who crossed over to Cao Cao in the...

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Wasteful delay

The Strategies of the Warring States records the argument against Zhao's plan to buy Qi's military help with a gift of territory: the campaign would d...

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A stale platitude

He Yan and Deng Yang, powerful and uneasy, summoned the diviner Guan Lu and asked what their prospects were. He told them to be humble and generous, a...

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Passionate engagement

Emperor Guangwu of Han held court every morning and did not break off until past noon, then called in his ministers to discuss the classics and the bu...

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A fine occasion and lovely scenery

Xie Lingyun wrote that fine hours, beautiful scenery, a heart at ease and joy in the doing are four things rarely granted together. The idiom keeps th...

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Act, don't just dream

Standing over (临) the pool (渊) envying (羡) the fish (鱼) — better, the Huainanzi says, to go home and knit a net. The Book of Han repeats it as advice ...

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Dynamic elegance

Dragon (龙) in flight (飞), phoenix (凤) in dance (舞). The phrase belongs above all to calligraphy, describing the running and cursive scripts where the ...

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Blundering on in extreme danger

The New Account of Tales of the World records a party game in which the guests competed to name the most dangerous thing. One offered a blind man (盲人)...

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Deserted; hardly a visitor

Zhai Gong, when he held high office, had a doorway crowded with visitors. Dismissed, he found the gateway (门) so empty that one could (可) have strung ...

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Dumbstruck

Eyes (目) staring (瞪) and mouth (口) slack (呆). It is straightforwardly descriptive and belongs to vernacular fiction and everyday speech. The pairing o...

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Passive acceptance

What comes against you (逆来), receive compliantly (顺受). The Yuan drama The Story of the Lute puts it in the mouth of a woman enduring what she cannot a...

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Reality from pretense

To handle (弄) the false (假) until it becomes (成) the true (真). The phrase is vernacular and belongs to drama and fiction, where the plot device is sta...

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Public exposure

To throw out (抛) the head (头) and show (露) the face (面). It began as a reproach aimed specifically at women appearing in public, in a society where se...

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Shared celebration

All under heaven (普天) celebrating (庆) together (同). The scale is imperial: the occasions that warranted it were amnesties, accessions, victories, the ...

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Lack of originality

A thousand (千) pieces (篇) to one (一) pattern (律). 律 is the load-bearing character — a rule, a fixed measure, the pitch standard in music — so what is ...

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Extreme danger

A weight of a thousand (千) 钧 hung from a single hair (一发). The 钧 was thirty catties, so the figure is not merely heavy but absurd, which is the point....

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A long and arduous journey

A thousand (千) mountains (山), ten thousand (万) rivers (水). Chinese uses paired large numbers as an intensifier rather than a count, and the pairing he...

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Efforts wasted

Su Li went to the ruler of Zhou with an argument to be put to the Qin general Bai Qi, then at the height of a run of victories. Chu had an archer, Yan...

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No options left

A road exhausted (穷途) and the end of the way (末路). The phrase is inseparable in Chinese memory from Ruan Ji, the Wei poet who would drive his cart out...

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Refreshing and pleasant

Autumn (秋) high (高), air (气) crisp (爽). 秋高 describes something specific to the season in northern China: the summer haze clears, the cloud base lifts,...

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A blessed land produces outstanding people

Wang Bo wrote it in his preface on the Pavilion of Prince Teng, matching it with a line about the region's produce and treasures: the people are outst...

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Diligent governance

Governing measured in volume: ten thousand (万) matters (机) handled (理) in a day (日). The construction is ancient, from the language of early statecraf...

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Intense and vigorous

Before an assembly of the states, the king of Wu drew up his army in three enormous blocks and marched them out at dawn: one all in white with white b...

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Treat a minor threat as a grave one

As if (如) facing (临) a great (大) enemy (敌). The phrase describes a posture rather than a situation, and that is what makes it double-edged. Used appro...

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Feeling relieved

The Guliang commentary describes the state of Lu after Duke Zhao, whose misgovernment had cost him everything, finally fled: 民如释重负 — the people felt a...

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Extreme discomfort

Du Xi served as tutor to a crown prince who did not want advice and grew to resent receiving it. The History of the Jin records that the prince had ne...

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See a thing through to a proper finish

To begin (始) well (善) and end (终) well. The thought is the Zhuangzi's, and the Records of the Grand Historian applies it to Chen Ping, who survived th...

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Full of energy

A living (生) dragon (龙) and an active (活) tiger (虎). The two characters doing the work are 生 and 活, which both mean alive — the phrase is not simply c...

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Public disgrace

狼藉 describes the state a wolf leaves its bedding grass in — trampled flat and scattered in every direction — and Chinese has used it for wreckage and ...

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Disappear without trace

A stone (石) sinking (沉) into the open sea (大海). What the image supplies that 'no reply' does not is the total absence of evidence — no splash worth no...

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Impenetrably crowded

So tight that water (水) cannot leak (泄) through (不通). The phrase comes out of Chan Buddhist writing, where such formulations describe a completeness w...

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From all directions

Four faces (四面) and eight directions (八方). The eight are the cardinal points and the corners between them, so the phrase enumerates the compass and th...

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Prolonged duration

Heaven (天) is long (长) and the days (日) many (久). It is worth keeping apart from its near-twin 天长地久, which is about eternal love and belongs to weddin...

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Dramatic upheaval

Heaven (天) overturned (翻), earth (地) upended (覆). The pairing is total by construction — there is nothing left that is not one of the two — so the phr...

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Exaggerated speech

A Buddhist sutra describes heavenly flowers (天花) falling in confusion (乱坠) as a sermon is preached, and the tale attached to it has a monk expounding ...

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Universal truth

The Zuo Zhuan records a discussion of ritual propriety during a Zhou succession crisis, defining it as the constant thread (经) of heaven (天) and the r...

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Unrestrained creativity

Han China imported horses from the far west and wrote about them extravagantly, as celestial creatures that sweated blood and could cover impossible d...

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Distant separation

The edge (涯) of the sky and the corner (角) of the sea. Han Yu's lament for his dead nephew has the source of the sentiment — one of us at heaven's edg...

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Diverse and flourishing

Zhu Xi's poem on a spring day ends with the line: once you know the face of the east wind, the ten thousand purples (万紫) and thousand reds (千红) are al...

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Carried away by success

To forget (忘) about (乎) the wherefore (所以) of oneself — the grammar is deliberately vague and the sense is losing track of who and where you are. It b...

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Vast beyond any limit

Without (无) edge (边), without (无) boundary (际). Chinese doubles the negation for scale, and the two nouns are not synonyms — 边 is the rim of a thing a...

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Unexpected similarity

Not (无) single (独) but having (有) a counterpart (偶). What makes it worth learning is the tone, which learners consistently get wrong. It is not a neut...

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Invaluable asset

A treasure (宝) without (无) a price (价). The claim is not that something is expensive but that the pricing operation does not apply to it, which is a d...

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Carefree and relaxed

Without (无) sorrow (忧), without (无) anxiety (虑). The pairing separates two things English tends to run together: 忧 is grief over what has happened and...

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Treat unlike things as equivalent

Dou Ying, having failed to protect the deposed crown prince, was advised that his conspicuous retirement into private pleasures would be read as a reb...

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Extreme joy

Flowers (花) of the heart (心) bursting (放) open. The character that misleads learners is 怒, which here does not mean angry but describes growth at full...

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Disheartened and despondent

Heart (心) turned to ash (灰), will (意) gone cold (冷). Both halves are about heat leaving rather than pain arriving, and that is the state being describ...

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Joyful enthusiasm

Liu Xie, writing on style and temperament, characterised the poet Ji Kang as lofty in inspiration (兴高) and vivid in expression (采烈). 采 there means lit...

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Daunting challenges

A cliff that hangs (悬崖) and a wall of rock that is sheer (峭壁). The two halves are the same geography twice, and the doubling is the point: what is des...

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Inclusive appreciation

Worth admiring (赏) to the refined (雅) and the common (俗) alike (共). 雅 and 俗 are a standing pair in Chinese criticism, the polished against the popular...

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Focus on main point

The last character is read zhuàn and means a narrative or a formal account, not 'to transmit'. That is because the phrase is a storyteller's formula: ...

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Rapid decline

Han Yu's poem on hearing the monk Ying play the zither tracks the music climbing, inch by inch, until it can go no higher — and then losing its footin...

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Abuse power to hoodwink everyone

One (一) hand (手) covering (遮) the sky (天). The image contains its own refutation, and classical uses of it say so — no hand is large enough, and the a...

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Stark naked; wholly unattached

This one begins in Chan Buddhist writing, where 丝 is a fishing line and the point is a fish with no thread attached to it — nothing hooked, nothing ty...

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Detail everything

Chinese counts large quantities in fives and tens, so 一五一十 is the sound of someone tallying aloud — five, ten, fifteen — without skipping. Applied to ...

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Complex situation

One (一) word (言) cannot exhaust (难尽) it. The phrase is doing social work as much as descriptive work: in practice it is the standard Chinese way of de...

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Short-sighted solution

The 鸩 is a poisonous bird of legend whose feathers, steeped in wine, made a reliable and untraceable method of murder. Huo Xu, defending his uncle aga...

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Undeniably obvious

Having (有) eyes (目), all together (共) see it (睹). The construction is worth noticing: the claim is not that everyone agrees, but that possessing eyes ...

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Vivid and lively

Having (有) sound (声) and having (有) colour (色). The phrase began in literary criticism, praising writing that engaged more than one sense at once, and...

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Good and bad people mixed together

Fish (鱼) and dragons (龙) mixed (混杂) together. The pairing depends on a Chinese belief that a carp which passes the Dragon Gate becomes a dragon, so th...

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Inflexible adherence

A man (人) of Zheng (郑), wanting to buy (买) shoes (履), measured his foot with a cord and left the cord at home. Reaching the market he found he had for...

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Diverse opinions

Many (众) accounts (说), tangled and numerous (纷纭). 纷纭 is a reduplicative describing things scattered and interwoven, the same word used of falling blos...

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Endless cycle

To go round (周) and then (而) begin again (复始). Chinese thought organises time cyclically by default — the sixty-year calendar, the五行 sequence, the sea...

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Give up on oneself entirely

Mencius distinguishes two failures and the phrase joins them. The man who does violence to himself (自暴) cannot be talked with, because he has decided ...

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Overestimate abilities

The Zuo Zhuan lists five faults in the small state of Xi, which attacked its stronger neighbour Zheng: it did not weigh its virtue, did not measure (量...

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Feeling inferior

Wang Ji was a handsome man and knew it. The New Account of Tales of the World says that whenever he saw his nephew Wei Jie he would sigh 珠玉在侧，觉我形秽 — w...

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Keep within one's proper bounds

Content with (安) one's allotted station (分) and keeping to (守) oneself (己). The phrase has two lives in Chinese and they are not easy to reconcile. As...

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Time flies swiftly

The Zhuangzi asks what a human life is between heaven and earth and answers: a white colt (白驹) glimpsed through (过) a gap in the wall (隙), and then it...

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Partial loss or retention

半壁 is half a wall and 江山, rivers and mountains, is the standard Chinese word for a realm — territory as the thing a dynasty holds. The phrase is insep...

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All-inclusive

To wrap up (包) and net (罗) the ten thousand (万) phenomena (象). 万象 is a set expression for the totality of appearances in the world, and 罗 is a fine-me...

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Idle and unproductive

Confucius, in the Analects: to eat one's fill (饱食) the whole day (终日) with the mind put to no use at all — this is a hard case. He then says, with som...

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Run directly counter to the aim

Turning one's back (背) on the road (道) and galloping (驰) the other way. It belongs to Tang prose rather than to a single early parable, and it is ofte...

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Compelled to rebel

Liangshan is the marsh stronghold of the outlaws in the Water Margin, and the novel's structure is the phrase's meaning: its heroes are not born rebel...

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Unpredictable nature

Change (变化) without (无) constancy (常). The Zhuangzi supplies it, and 无常 is worth knowing separately: it is also the standard Chinese rendering of the ...

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Harsh conditions

Ice (冰) for a sky (天) and snow (雪) for ground (地). The construction assigns the two elements to the two halves of the world, leaving nothing outside t...

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Fear-induced shivering

The Records of the Grand Historian describes Yi Zong, an official of Emperor Wu's who executed more than four hundred people in a single day, and repo...

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Innumerable

Not (不) counting (计) their (其) number (数). The construction is precise about what is being claimed — not that the things are infinite but that nobody ...

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Unearned gain

To obtain (获) without (不) labouring (劳). Chinese has a strong and consistent moral vocabulary around this, and the phrase is its plainest statement. I...

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Incoherent or inappropriate

Neither in the proper relation (不伦) nor of the proper kind (不类). 伦 is the word used for the cardinal human relationships, so both halves are about cat...

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Desolate area

毛 is the hair of an animal and, by extension, the vegetable covering of the ground. Land (地) without (不) that covering (毛) is bare in a specific way —...

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Idle and irresponsible

Not attending to (不务) the proper (正) occupation (业). What makes the phrase sting in Chinese is 正: there is a right thing for a person in their positio...

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Sudden disappearance

The Guanzi observes that what has no wings and yet flies is sound — meaning that words travel without any visible means of doing so. That is the origi...

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Springtime vitality

Qiu Chi, writing to persuade a defector to come home, gave him the south in three clauses: in late spring, the grass of Jiangnan grows (草长), flowers c...

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Bustling activity

Empress Ma of the Later Han, declining to have her relatives ennobled, described the traffic she had seen at their gates: the carriages (车) like flowi...

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Domineering behavior

To style oneself (称) king (王) and style oneself hegemon (霸). The two titles are not synonyms and the distinction is old: the 王 rules by legitimate man...

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Nonsensical talk

A Song collection tells of the monk Sengqie, asked what his surname was and where he came from, who answered 何 to both — a pun, since 何 means 'what'. ...

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Easily attainable

唾手 is spitting on the palms, the gesture a labourer makes before taking hold of a handle — so the phrase is not about spit but about the moment just b...

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Satisfaction at a wrong being punished

Greatly (大) gladdening (快) the hearts (心) of people (人). The phrase is specific to a public rather than a private satisfaction, and more specifically ...

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Unexpected joy

Ying Bu defected from Xiang Yu to Liu Bang and was received, on arrival, by a Liu Bang who did not get up, sat having his feet washed, and barely ackn...

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Extreme fear or anxiety

胆 is the gallbladder, which Chinese physiology treats as the seat of courage — the organ that fails first when nerve goes. So the phrase describes cou...

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Defy norms

Wu Zixu, whose father and brother King Ping of Chu had executed, returned with a foreign army, found the king already dead, and had the corpse taken f...

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Trivial skill

雕虫 refers to carving in the insect script, and 小技 calls it a small (小) skill (技), one of the ornamental seal hands that a young scholar practised — fi...

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Plot revealed

Qin Hui, chancellor of the Southern Song, is said to have plotted beneath the east window (东窗) with his wife to destroy the general Yue Fei, who was d...

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Insufficient individual effort

A single (独) timber (木) cannot easily (难) prop up (支) a building, and the phrase is usually given in full with the thing it is failing to hold: 大厦将倾，独...

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Unnecessary action

One (一) action (举) too many (多此). Chinese has a family of expressions for this and it is worth hearing the differences: 画蛇添足 is adding something that ...

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Dramatic transformation

Sky (天) overturned (翻), earth (地) upended (覆) — the same four characters as 天翻地覆 in a different order, and the two are used interchangeably. If there ...

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Unpredictable behavior

Turning back and forth (反复) without (无) constancy (常). What distinguishes it from ordinary changeability is that 反复 implies reversal rather than varie...

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Empty grandiose talk

Lofty (高) talk (谈) and expansive (阔) discussion (论). The two halves both describe scale — the altitude of the subject and the breadth of the sweep — a...

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Be discreet

Across (隔) the wall (墙) there are (有) ears (耳). Early statecraft texts carry the warning in the barer form 墙有耳, and Chinese and English arrived at alm...

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Extremely thin

Bones (骨) thin (瘦) as (如) kindling (柴). 柴 is firewood, specifically the dry brushwood gathered for burning, so the comparison carries dryness and brit...

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Unbounded scope; or talk that rambles everywhere

Sea (海) wide (阔) and sky (天) empty (空), from the couplet about the fish leaping where the sea allows and the bird flying where the sky permits. The ph...

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Good things come with setbacks

Good things (好事) meet much (多) grinding (磨). 磨 is the millstone, and the abrasion is the point: the phrase does not say good things are delayed but th...

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Arrogant and lawless

横行 is moving (行) sideways or unrestrained (横), and 霸道 is rule by force as opposed to rule by right. So the phrase is someone moving through the world ...

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Strong and robust

A tiger's (虎) back (背) and a bear's (熊) waist (腰). The phrase specifies build rather than height — breadth through the shoulders and thickness through...

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Ephemeral dreams

A Tang tale has a discontented young man at an inn in Handan complaining of his prospects to a Daoist, who lends him a pillow. He dreams an entire lif...

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Lingering reflection

回味 is the aftertaste, the flavour that comes back after swallowing, and Chinese food writing takes it seriously as a separate quality from the taste i...

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Entrenched practice resists reversal

What has accumulated (积) becomes heavy (重) and is hard (难) to turn back (返). The image is of momentum rather than mere habit — something that gathered...

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Tense confrontation

It began as art criticism. A Liang-dynasty appraisal of calligraphy described one master's brushwork as having swords drawn (剑拔) and crossbows spanned...

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Grassroots uprising

Jia Yi's essay on the failings of Qin describes the rising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang: they cut wood for weapons and raised (揭) bamboo poles (竿) for b...

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Short-sighted exploitation

Before the battle of Chengpu, Duke Wen of Jin asked two advisers how to face a stronger enemy. One recommended deception. The other, Yong Ji, answered...

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Magnificently splendid

金碧 names two specific pigments — gold leaf and malachite green — used together in a style of Tang and Song landscape painting that was deliberately op...

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Thrilling, hair-raising

Zhong Rong, grading poets in the sixth century, wrote of Lu Ji's fourteen imitations of the old anonymous poems that they startle (惊) the heart (心) an...

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Indecisive hesitation

The Zuo Zhuan reports a warning about a minister wavering over whether to restore an exiled ruler: a man who lifts (举) the chess piece (棋) without hav...

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A fortunate new beginning

This is the single most important New Year phrase of a Goat year, and it comes from the Book of Changes (《周易》). In the hexagram cycle, the eleventh mo...

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Radiating happiness

The phrase descends from Fan Zhongyan's 《岳阳楼记》, where a visitor climbing the tower feels his spirit widen until honour and disgrace fall away and he i...

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Good fortune and fulfilment

The commonest of all Chinese New Year wishes hides a sheep in plain sight. 祥, auspiciousness, is built on the 羊 radical, and in Han-dynasty bronze ins...

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A small loss that yields a greater gain

From 《淮南子·说山训》: to lose (亡) a sheep (羊) and gain (得) an ox (牛) is a loss no one would refuse. The phrase is the optimistic twin of the far better-know...

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A narrow, winding, difficult road

Chinese has no gentler way of saying that a road is bad. The image is anatomical and exact — the winding, doubling coil of a sheep's (羊) intestine (肠)...

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Too content to think of home

When the kingdom of Shu fell in 263, its last ruler Liu Shan was resettled in Luoyang and given a comfortable title. The Han Jin Chunqiu, quoted in th...

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Turn pale at the mere mention of it

The Cheng brothers' recorded conversations distinguish knowing about a thing from having met it. Everyone knows tigers are dangerous, they observed, b...

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Stuck, able neither to advance nor retreat

From the Book of Changes (《周易》), hexagram 34, Great Strength (大壮). The image appears in two of its lines. The third line warns that an inferior person...

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A rich and impressive array

洋洋 describes something vast and overflowing, and 大观 a grand spectacle. The root image goes back to Zhuangzi, which describes the Way as covering and s...

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May good fortune shine on you

One of the standard Chinese New Year blessings, seen on greeting cards, spring couplets (春联) and red envelopes. 吉星 is an auspicious star — in traditio...

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May everything go the way you want

Probably the most-used Chinese New Year wish of all. 万事 is 'ten thousand matters', meaning everything, and 如意 means 'as one wishes' — the same 如意 as t...

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May your wishes come true

A modern blessing rather than a classical idiom: dictionaries give it no ancient source, and it spread through twentieth-century greeting culture. 心想 ...

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Cheerfulness brings a long life

From Xunzi (《荀子·致士》): 'win the people and you move heaven; a joyful heart extends your years; sincerity works like the divine' (得众动天，美意延年，诚信如神). The T...

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Wishing you a prosperous New Year

A folk New Year greeting with no classical source. 恭喜 means 'respectful congratulations' and 发财 'to make a fortune', so the phrase says, roughly, 'con...

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May you have more than enough, year after year

A folk blessing with no single classical source. In older texts the four characters simply describe a household that has money to spare each year, as ...

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May you stay safe and well every year

A traditional blessing with no single source text. 岁岁 means 'every year' and 平安 'safe and sound'. It was already a stock auspicious phrase in the Qing...

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May everything be lucky and go smoothly

吉 means 'auspicious' and 利 'favourable' or 'profitable'; repeating 大 ('great') makes it an emphatic good-luck wish. Dictionaries trace it to divinatio...

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May your life flourish in wealth and status

A folk blessing with no single classical source, built on the symbolism of the peony. 花开 means 'flowers open' and 富贵 'wealth and rank'. The link betwe...

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May every kind of good fortune come to your home

The five blessings come from the Book of Documents. The 'Great Plan' chapter (《尚书·洪范》) lists them: 'The five blessings: first, long life; second, weal...

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May your home overflow with wealth

Today a wish for great wealth, but it began as a warning. Chapter 9 of the Daodejing (《老子》) reads: 'When gold and jade fill the hall, no one can guard...

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May good luck and blessings follow you

A common New Year blessing wishing someone plenty of good luck. 福星 is the 'star of blessing': the Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary identifies i...

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May money come to you from every direction

One of the most common money wishes of Chinese New Year. 财 is wealth, 源 is source (literally a spring of water), 广 is wide or broad, and 进 is to come ...

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May your business thrive

The standard wish for a shop or company. 生意 means business or trade, and 兴隆 means flourishing and prosperous. There is no single classical origin; the...

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Everything starts fresh with the new year

A phrase for the fresh start of a new year or a new spring. 万象 is 'ten thousand phenomena', everything in view, and 更新 means to renew. It is best know...

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To see out the old year and welcome the new one

The phrase for the turning of the year itself, especially New Year's Eve (除夕). 辞 means to take leave of, 旧 is the old, 迎 is to welcome, and 新 is the n...

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May you always be happy and smiling

A folk blessing with no classical source: standard dictionaries define it simply as keeping a happy, cheerful mood, and give no ancient text. 笑口 is 'a...

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May your good fortune be boundless

福 is 'blessing' or 'good fortune', 如 is 'like', and 东海 is the Eastern Sea, the ocean off China's east coast. The wish is for good fortune as boundless...

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May you live a long life

寿 is 'long life', 比 is 'to compare with', and 南山 is the Southern Mountains, usually identified as the Zhongnan range south of the old Zhou capital nea...

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Good fortune is on its way

紫 is 'purple', 气 is 'vapour' or 'energy', and 东来 is 'coming from the east'. It refers to the legend of Laozi leaving China through the Hangu Pass. The...

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May the year bring abundance

五谷 is 'the five grains', a traditional term for all staple crops (lists vary, but usually include millet, rice, wheat and beans), 丰 is 'abundant' and ...

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A new year begins and everything starts afresh

一 is 'one', 元 is 'the first' or 'the beginning', 复 is 'again' and 始 is 'to start'. Together: the first day comes round again, a new year begins. The p...

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May everything go smoothly

A folk saying with no agreed classical source. 顺 means 'smooth' or 'going well', 大 is 'great'. The Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary says plainl...

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Winter is over and new life returns

春 is 'spring', 回 is 'to return', and 大地 is 'the great earth' or 'the land'. The phrase means that winter is over and warmth and new life are coming ba...

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