Wisdom & Learning Chinese Idioms

Integrate many strands into one understanding

Zhu Xi gave the phrase its lasting sense in the collected works, describing the point a student reaches after long effort and thorough investigation, ...

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Learning is limitless

This is from the second half of a well-known couplet, 书山有路勤为径，学海无涯苦作舟 — the mountain of books has a path, and diligence is that path; the sea (海) of l...

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Practice what you know

Wang Yangming reached his enlightenment in exile at Longchang in Guizhou in 1508, and began teaching this doctrine the following year, when he was inv...

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Learn many from one example

Confucius, in the Analects, said he did not go on teaching a man who, shown one corner, could not come back (反) with the other three (三) — 举一隅不以三隅反，则不...

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Learn new through studying old

Confucius, in the Analects: 温故而知新，可以为师矣 — one who warms (温) the old (故) and thereby knows (知) the new (新) is fit to be a teacher. 温 is the word for re...

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Add crucial finishing touch

Zhang Sengyou painted four dragons on a temple wall in Jinling and left them without pupils, saying that if he dotted the eyes they would fly away. Pr...

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Read extensively for knowledge

This is from the couplet 读万卷书，行万里路 — read (读) ten thousand (万) scrolls (卷书), walk ten thousand li — made famous by the Ming painter and critic Dong Qi...

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Offer modest view to inspire better

Zhao Gu was the better poet, and Chang Jian wanted a poem out of him. Knowing Zhao Gu would visit the Lingyan Temple, Chang Jian went first and wrote ...

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Adopt the customs of where you are

Enter (入) the district (乡), follow (随) its customs (俗). The older formulation, about entering a place and going by its rules, is in the Zhuangzi, and ...

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Two goals with one action

A calque rather than a classical idiom: one (一) stone (石), two (二) birds (鸟), taken into Chinese from the English 'kill two birds with one stone' by w...

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Weigh it before you move

This one comes from the Analects, on Ji Wenzi, who thought (思) three times (三) before acting (行). The passage is usually quoted as praise, but Confuci...

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Makes no sense

Something whose strangeness (妙) cannot (莫) be named (名). 妙 is the trap for learners: in Daoist writing it is the subtle and the marvellous, but the to...

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Foresee big from small signs

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 ca...

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Gather wisdom from many

Zhuge Liang wrote to his staff that the purpose of a joint office was 集众思，广忠益, to gather the many thoughts and broaden the loyal benefit; the four-cha...

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Trace back to 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...

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Valuable, lasting advice

Sound advice likened to gold (金) and jade (玉), the two materials Chinese tradition treats as both precious and enduring. Good words (良言) of this kind ...

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Open threats easier than hidden

The saying is a matched pair and only works whole: 明枪易躲，暗箭难防 — an open (明) spear (枪) is easy (易) to dodge (躲), a hidden arrow hard to guard against. I...

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Study despite hardship

Two Jin-dynasty scholars, joined into one phrase. Che Yin could not afford lamp oil, so in summer he filled a thin silk bag with several dozen firefli...

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Find value among worthless

The Grades of the Poets quotes Xie Hun comparing two writers: Pan Yue's verse is brilliant as unrolled brocade, fine everywhere, while Lu Ji's is like...

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Make situation worse

Su Dai argued against buying peace from Qin by ceding territory: serving Qin with land is like carrying (抱) firewood (薪) to put out (救) a fire (火) — w...

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Miss big picture

This descends from the Heguanzi, which observes that a single leaf before the eyes hides the mountain, and two beans in the ears hide the thunder — 一叶...

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Follow clues to solution

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, bu...

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Read between lines

This psychological idiom combines watching words (察言) and observing expressions (观色), reflecting ancient Chinese diplomatic practices where court offi...

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Ruin by adding extras

The Strategies of the Warring States tells of retainers given a single flagon of wine and agreeing that whoever finished drawing a snake first should ...

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Create new from old

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...

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Perceive tiny details

This descends from the Mencius, where a man claims sight clear (明) enough to make out (察) the tip of an autumn (秋) hair (毫) — the fine down animals gr...

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Stay humble and open

The Daodejing describes the man of old as being, among other things, open as a valley. A chest (怀) held empty (虚) like (若) a valley (谷) takes in whate...

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Cannot undo what's done

A team of four horses (驷) was the fastest thing on a Chinese road, and the saying holds that even it cannot catch (难追) a word once it has been spoken....

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Always someone better

Beyond (外) the sky (天) there is another sky (天). It travels as half of a pair — 天外有天，人外有人, and beyond any person there is another person — and the sec...

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Small signs show big picture

This one comes from the Huainanzi of the Han dynasty: 见一叶落而知岁之将暮 — seeing one leaf fall, one knows the year is drawing to its close. From a single (一)...

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So many books they cannot be housed

Books enough that the ox hauling them sweats (汗牛) and the house is filled to the rafters (充栋). Liu Zongyuan coined it in a memorial inscription, compl...

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Clear and calm mind

This metaphor comes from the Zhuangzi, which observes that no one takes their reflection from running water but from water that is still — 人莫鉴于流水而鉴于止水...

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Plan far ahead

Jia Yi uses it in his essay on the faults of Qin, contrasting the rebel Chen She with the men of the earlier age: he had not their deep (深) planning (...

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Self-reflect daily

Zengzi, not Confucius, says it in the Analects: daily I examine (省) myself (吾身) on three (三) points — whether I have been unfaithful in planning for o...

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Stop before too late

Reining in (勒) the horse (马) at the lip of the cliff (悬崖). No incident lies behind it, and this exact wording is late — the attested examples are Qing...

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Get straight to point

Writing or speech that opens (开) the door (门) and immediately sees (见) the mountain (山): no approach, no scenery on the way, no throat-clearing. It co...

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All theory no practice

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 ...

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Humbly seek guidance

Moving (移) one's own wine cup (樽) across to where somebody is sitting, in order to receive (就) instruction (教). The gesture is the entire meaning: the...

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Repeated lie becomes truth

Pang Cong, about to leave Wei escorting a hostage prince to Handan, asked his king whether he would believe a man who reported a tiger (虎) in the mark...

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Experience brings wisdom

Returning from a campaign against Guzhu, the army of Duke Huan of Qi lost the road, and Guan Zhong proposed releasing the old horses (老马) and followin...

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Lower one's guard

Liu Zongyuan of the Tang, writing to a younger man, says of his own composition: 故吾每为文章，未尝敢以轻心掉之，惧其剽而不留也 — I have never dared toss a piece off (掉) wit...

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Learn from the worthy

Confucius in the Analects: seeing (见) a worthy man (贤), think of (思) matching him (齐) — and seeing an unworthy one, turn inward and examine yourself. ...

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Never too late to fix

The Strategies of the Warring States gives it to the minister Zhuang Xin, speaking to the King of Chu after part of the kingdom has already been lost:...

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Know something thoroughly

To recite something as though counting (数) the treasures (珍) of one's own household (家) — the reading is shǔ, to enumerate, not shù. The comparison is...

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Contradict oneself

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 ...

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Combine strengths to overcome weaknesses

This one comes from the Mencius, which describes a small state as one that would measure some fifty li if you cut off the long side to supplement the ...

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Stop problems before they grow

To guard against (防) the minute (微) and block (杜) the gradual (渐). The History of the Later Han records the argument in a memorial urging an emperor t...

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Understand with absolute clarity

This descends from the Book of Documents, where Pan Geng tells his people that he sees their intentions as one sees a fire — 予若观火. To perceive (洞) som...

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Penetrating deeply to the essence

This descends from Cheng Hao of the Song, whose 鞭辟近里 urges driving study inward toward what is essential rather than accumulating surfaces. The image ...

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Embrace diverse ideas inclusively

In 进学解 Han Yu lists what a good physician keeps in store: fine drugs and coarse ones, jade fragments and cinnabar alongside ox urine and the skin of a...

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Different methods, equally good results

Han Yu wrote in the same essay that Yang Xiong and Sima Xiangru were of the same (同) workmanship (工) though their tunes (曲) differed (异) — 同工异曲, which...

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Limited perspective on vast subject

Dongfang Shuo, deflecting a challenge, wrote of looking at the sky through a tube (管窥) and measuring the sea with a gourd dipper (蠡测). Both instrument...

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Ruin through impatient intervention

This comes from the Mencius. A man of Song, impatient that his seedlings (苗) were not growing (长), went through the field pulling (拔) each one upward ...

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Accept without proper understanding

Someone was told that pears are good for the teeth and bad for the spleen, and jujubes good for the spleen and bad for the teeth. He proposed to chew ...

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Judge with limited perspective

This descends from Han Yu's Essentials of the Moral Way: 坐井而观天，曰天小者，非天小也 — sitting (坐) in a well (井) and looking (观) at the sky (天), one calls the sky...

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Present to wrong audience

Gongming Yi played a refined melody to an ox, which went on grazing. He then played something imitating a gadfly and a lost calf, and the ox raised it...

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Prioritize minor over fundamental matters

Root (本) and tip (末) put in reversed (倒) position (置). The botanical pair is one of the most productive in Chinese: 本 is the base of the trunk and 末 t...

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Profoundly penetrating insight

Wang Xizhi wrote out a text for a sacrificial ceremony on a wooden board, and when the carver came to cut it he found the ink had sunk three fen (三分) ...

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Reassess someone who has improved

Lü Meng was a Wu general dismissed as unlettered muscle until his sovereign told him to read. When Lu Su next passed through and talked strategy with ...

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Ineffective indirect solution

To scratch (搔) an itch (痒) through (隔) the boot (靴). The image comes out of Chan writing, where it describes teaching that circles a matter without to...

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Standards exceed abilities

Eyes (眼) high (高), hands (手) low (低). The two faculties are judged separately, and the phrase concedes the first while faulting the second: the taste ...

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Using outdated methods foolishly

The Lüshi Chunqiu, compiled around 239 BCE at the close of the Warring States period, tells of a man of Chu who dropped his sword (剑) from a boat (舟) ...

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Valuing packaging over content

Han Feizi tells of a man of Chu who sold a pearl to a man of Zheng, in a casket (椟) of magnolia scented with spices, inlaid with jade and kingfisher f...

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Moderation in all things

Zigong asked Confucius which of two disciples was the better; one went too far and one fell short. Asked whether going too far was therefore better, C...

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Harmful interference ruins growth

This one comes from the Mencius. A man of Song, impatient that his seedlings (苗) were not growing (长), went through the field pulling (揠) each one upw...

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Creating without practical feedback

This comes from Zhu Xi of the Song dynasty, who quotes an older saying: build (造) the cart (车) behind closed (闭) doors (门), and it will still match th...

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Self-deception through ignoring reality

A man found a bell too large to carry and tried to break it up; the noise alarmed him, so he covered (掩) his own ears (耳) and went on hammering at the...

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Narrow-minded from limited experience

In the Zhuangzi, a frog (蛙) at the bottom (底) of a broken well (井) boasts to a turtle of the Eastern Sea about the water reaching its armpits, the mud...

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Always have backup plans

This is from the Strategies of the Warring States, where the retainer Feng Xuan tells Lord Mengchang that a wily (狡) rabbit (兔) keeps three (三) burrow...

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Showing amateur skills to masters

Brandishing (弄) an axe (斧) at the gate (门) of Lu Ban (班), the legendary carpenter and patron of Chinese craftsmen. The image was already proverbial wh...

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Failed imitation lacking understanding

The Zhuangzi says that Xi Shi, sick at heart, went frowning through her village, and that a plain woman of the same village saw it and thought it love...

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Learning unconsciously through constant exposure

This comes from Han Yu of the Tang, on a child raised among capable people who acquires their skill without study: the ears (耳) are steeped (濡) and th...

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Linking tradition with innovation

To carry on (承) what came before (前) and open the way for (启) what follows (后). Both verbs are transitive and the phrase names a position rather than ...

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Effortless skill through perfect practice

Cook Ding (庖丁) cut apart (解) an ox (牛) for Lord Wenhui with his whole body in motion and the blade whispering, never once meeting bone. At first, he s...

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Mistaking partial knowledge for complete wisdom

A king had blind (盲) men (人) brought to feel (摸) an elephant (象) and say what it was: the one who got the tusk said a radish, the ear a winnowing bask...

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Sophisticated work appreciated by few

Song Yu, asked by the King of Chu why so many people spoke ill of him, answered with a singer who came to Ying, the Chu capital. He began with common ...

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Just so-so or passable quality

Horse (马) horse tiger (虎) tiger. The folk story behind it has a careless painter whose animal could be read as either, and who is said to have lost tw...

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Essentially the same despite appearances

This idiom depends on the old Chinese weight system, in which one jin was sixteen liang rather than ten. Half a jin (半斤) is therefore exactly eight li...

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Very high probability at about 80-90 percent

Of ten (十), there are (有) eight (八) or nine (九). Its usefulness is that it names an honest degree of confidence — high but not asserted as certain. Sp...

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Absolutely certain without any doubt

Without (无) so much as a fine hair (毫) of doubt (疑问). 毫 is a real unit — the finest hair of an animal's winter coat, used in classical Chinese as the ...

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Make accusations without solid evidence

The Book of Han dismisses a fruitless pursuit in words close to these: listen to such talk and it fills the ear as though the thing were within reach,...

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Beyond hope of redemption or reform

This one comes from the Book of Songs, in a poem warning that when the burning grows fierce enough there is no (不可) saving it with medicine (救药). The ...

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Beyond comprehension or explanation

Not (不) able to be (可) thought (思) or spoken (议). The phrase is Buddhist and technical in origin, describing what lies beyond the reach of conceptual ...

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Evenly matched with neither superior

Not (不) mutually (相) above and below (上下). Chinese ranks by verticality, so denying both directions denies the ranking itself — the claim is not that ...

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Beauty so stunning it affects natural world

The Zhuangzi is the source, and it means the opposite of what the phrase now does: Mao Qiang and Lady Li are what people call beautiful, but fish seei...

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Show profound respect and patience seeking wisdom

The History of Song records that Yang Shi, already an official of forty, went with a friend to put a question to the philosopher Cheng Yi and found hi...

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Recruit talent from rival organization

The Zuo Zhuan records Sheng Zi putting it to Zimu, chief minister of Chu: Jin's ministers are not the equal of Chu's, but its officers are able men, a...

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Unreliable information from casual hearsay

This one comes from the Analects, where Confucius says that to hear something on the road (道听) and repeat it on the path (途说) is to throw virtue away....

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Gains not worth the cost or sacrifice

The gain (得) does not (不) compensate (偿) the loss (失). 偿 is the word for repaying a debt, so the phrase sets the two sides of a ledger against each ot...

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Avoid situations that invite suspicion

An old ballad advises the gentleman not to pull on his shoe in a melon field nor straighten his hat beneath a plum tree — 瓜田不纳履，李下不整冠 — since either m...

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Fundamentally or in the final analysis

Returning (归) to the root (根) and getting to (到) the bottom (底). Both halves point downward, one botanical and one spatial, and the phrase is used to ...

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Lose abilities through misguided imitation

The Zhuangzi asks whether you have not heard about the young man of Shouling who went to Handan (邯郸) to learn how they walked there (学步). He never acq...

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Sudden complete understanding after confusion

恍然 is the suddenness of something swimming into focus; 大悟 is the Buddhist term for full awakening. The phrase therefore describes understanding that a...

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Progress step by step

This descends from Zhu Xi of the Song dynasty, whose advice on reading insists on following (循) the order (序) and advancing (渐进) by degrees, without s...

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A refreshing new experience

Ears (耳) and eyes (目) made new (一新) all at once. The claim is about the apparatus rather than the object: what has changed is the freshness of the per...

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Actions contrary to one's goals

The Strategies of the Warring States tells of a man who wanted to travel to the southern state of Chu and drove his carriage north. When asked why, he...

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Self-imposed restrictions; limiting oneself

Sima Qian, in the letter to Ren An written after his own mutilation, describes what a man of honour will do rather than face the officers: there are t...

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Proportionate to what it merits

Exactly (恰) as (如) its own (其) measure (分) requires. 分 is a portion allotted, what something is due, so the phrase is about matching rather than about...

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Exceptional literary or artistic talent

A collection of Tang anecdotes records that Li Bai dreamed the tip of his brush had put out flowers, and that his gifts were extraordinary from then o...

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Having deep roots and long history

A source (源) far off (远) and a current (流) that runs long (长). Both halves describe the same river from opposite ends, and what they claim together is...

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Half believing, half doubting; unable to tell true from false

Half (半) believing (信), half (半) doubting (疑). The symmetry is exact and that is what the phrase is for: it does not describe leaning one way while en...

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Lifelike; vividly realistic

栩栩 comes straight out of the Zhuangzi's butterfly dream — 栩栩然蝴蝶也, a butterfly vividly and contentedly itself — and the phrase adds 如生, as though alive...

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The whole story; causes and effects

Both halves are technical terms from geomancy, and they are not the same kind of thing: 龙 is the rise and fall of a mountain range, and the 来龙 is its ...

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Unable to understand despite much thought

To have turned it over a hundred (百) times in thought (思) and still not (不) got it undone (解). 解 is loosening a knot, which is the right image: this i...

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Outsmart oneself; cleverness backfiring

Huang Tingjian used the phrase alongside the older image of drawing a snake and adding feet: working at cleverness (弄巧) and producing clumsiness (成拙) ...

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Complement each other; mutually beneficial

Mutually (相) assisting (辅) and mutually (相) completing (成). 辅 is the outer brace on a cart wheel, a piece with no function of its own and without whic...

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Explain profound ideas in simple terms

Going in (入) deep (深) and coming out (出) shallow (浅). Both halves describe the same person, and the order is the whole claim: the depth comes first an...

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Hit the nail on the head; incisive

This idiom originally described skilled acupuncturists who could draw blood (见血) with a single (一) needle (针) insertion, demonstrating perfect techniq...

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Showing originality; unconventional

To bring out (出) something set apart (别) by one's own (心) cutting (裁). 裁 is the tailor's cut, laying the cloth out and deciding where the shears go, s...

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Stopped at exactly the right point

Arriving (到) exactly (恰) at the right (好) spot (处). 处 is a place, and the spatial metaphor does real work: the claim is not that something was done we...

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Judge by evidence, not doctrine

This is from the Book of Han, in its account of Liu De, Prince Xian of Hejian, praised for loving antiquity and seeking (求) what is so (是) from actual...

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Know everything; omniscient

There is nothing (无所) that is not (不) known (知). The construction is a double negative and is stronger for it: instead of claiming all knowledge it de...

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Different people, different strengths

This idiom states that each person (各) has (有) their own (所) strengths (长). It acknowledges that different individuals excel in different areas, promo...

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Suddenly see the light; become clear

In Tao Yuanming's account the fisherman leaves his boat and goes in through a small opening in the hillside where a little light shows. It is very nar...

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Feel as if personally present

The body (身) arriving (临) at that (其) very place (境). 临 is to come right to the edge of something and look at it, and 身 insists it was the person and ...

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Waste talent on menial tasks

A large (大) timber (材) put to a small (小) use (用). 材 is stock or material, the same character used of a person's calibre, and the metaphor is a carpen...

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Clear at a glance; obvious

Wholly clear (了然) at one (一) glance (目). 了 is to finish or complete, so 了然 is the state of a thing being settled in the mind, and the claim is that th...

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Content with superficial understanding

Tao Yuanming, describing himself under an assumed name, wrote 好读书，不求甚解 — fond of reading, and not (不) pressing (求) for exhaustive (甚) explanation (解) ...

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Welcome criticism; embrace feedback

The Mencius says of Zilu that when people told him he had a fault (过), he was glad (喜) — 人告之以有过则喜. The 闻 of the four-character form is the hearing of ...

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Readily accept good advice

This one comes from the Zuo Zhuan, said of Luan Shu of Jin, who took good counsel the way water runs downhill — following (从) the good (善) as if (如) f...

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Draw a learner on step by step

Yan Hui, describing what it was like to be taught by Confucius, said 夫子循循然善诱人 — the Master leads people on step after step (循循) and is good (善) at dra...

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Teach with tireless patience

In the Analects, Confucius says 学而不厌，诲人不倦 — never tiring of study, never wearying (不倦) of instructing (诲) people (人) — and adds, what of these is in m...

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Adapt teaching to student abilities

Teaching (施教) according to (因) the material (材). 材 is timber or stock, what you have been given to work with, and the carpenter's metaphor does real w...

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Teach anyone, whatever their station

In teaching (教) there are (有) no (无) categories (类). Confucius said it in a society where 类 meant birth and rank, so the claim was substantive rather ...

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Teach by word and deed

Passing it on in words (言传) and teaching by the person (身教). The two halves are not equal partners, and Chinese treats the second as the stronger: 身 i...

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Have many successful students

The Han Shi Waizhuan puts the argument plainly: plant peaches (桃) and plums (李) in spring and you sit in their shade by summer and eat the fruit by au...

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Be impatient for success; rush things

Anxious (急) about (于) obtaining (求) success (成). 急 is urgency felt as pressure rather than as speed, so the fault is located in the person's state and...

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Haste makes waste; more haste less speed

Confucius, advising a newly appointed magistrate, told him not to want things quickly and not to be drawn by small advantages: 欲速则不达 — want (欲) speed ...

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Retire after achieving success

The Dao De Jing states it as a natural law rather than as advice: 功遂身退，天之道 — the work (功) done (成), the person (身) withdraws (退), and this is the way ...

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Retire at the peak; know when to quit

To pull out (退) bravely (勇) while the current (流) is still running fast (急). The image is a boatman who turns for the bank at the point where everythi...

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Quit while ahead; take profits

Seeing (见) that it is good (好) and then (就) taking it in (收). The advice is about stopping, and specifically about stopping while the stopping is volu...

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Stop at the right point; practice moderation

Reaching what will do (适可) and then (而) halting (止). 适可 is the point of sufficiency — enough for the purpose, not the maximum available — so the phras...

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Have a well-thought-out plan; be confident

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 b...

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Handle with ease; have skill to spare

Cook Ding in the Zhuangzi explains that his blade goes where the joints are already open, and that in a gap of that kind there is 恢恢乎其于游刃必有余地 — ample ...

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Be experienced; find something easy due to familiarity

A light (轻) carriage (车) on a familiar (熟) road (路). Both halves reduce the same thing, effort: nothing heavy to pull and nothing about the route to w...

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Be very familiar with; handle with expertise

Han Yu, recommending the recluse Shi Hong for office, praised the way he talked: set him to discussing principle, weighing whether things past and pre...

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Work with great ease; have complete mastery

The Zhuangzi's wheelwright says of his craft that he gets it in the hand and answers to it in the heart — 得之于手而应于心 — and that this is exactly what he ...

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Hidden talents or extraordinary people in an unassuming place

Yu Xin of the Northern Zhou wrote 暗石疑藏虎，盘根似卧龙 — dark stones seem to hide tigers, gnarled roots resemble a reclining dragon — and the halves were later...

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Versatile and learned

Broad learning (博学) and many talents (多才) — the Book of Jin applies it to Xi Shen, whose range across subjects was the thing contemporaries remarked o...

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Practical application

Study (学) in order to (以) arrive at (致) use (用). The argument behind it is very old, and Chinese philosophy returns to it constantly — most sharply in...

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Humble in learning

Zigong asked Confucius why Kong Wenzi, a minister of Wei whose private conduct was not admirable, had been given the honorific 文 after his death. Conf...

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Wise and learned

Wide in the ancient (博古) and versed in the present (通今). The Family Sayings of Confucius records Confucius saying it of Laozi, though in the older wor...

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Apply knowledge broadly

The appendices to the Book of Changes describe the method: draw a thing out, extend it by category, and the whole field follows. Hence touching (触) a ...

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Extremely learned

The Zhuangzi says of the logician Hui Shi that his doctrines were many and his books filled five carts (五车). Worth knowing what that measured: books w...

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Exceptionally talented

Xie Lingyun, a poet not troubled by modesty, once measured out the world's literary talent aloud: if all of it came to one 石, then Cao Zhi alone held ...

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Wise and knowledgeable

经纶 is textile work before it is statecraft — sorting raw silk and twisting it into cord — and it became the standard metaphor for the ordering of stat...

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Broadly knowledgeable

Having seen much (见多) and knowing widely (识广). The phrase belongs to the vernacular rather than the classics, and Ming fiction is where it becomes com...

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Perceptive and insightful

Ears keen (耳聪) and eyes clear (目明). The pairing is ancient and appears across the classics, generally describing a ruler or official who can actually ...

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Thoughtful deliberation

Deep (深) thinking (思) and matured (熟) deliberation (虑). Both halves are pairs that appear throughout the classics, and the force is in 熟 — the same ch...

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Self-taught mastery

Without (无) a teacher (师), understanding (通) by oneself (自). The phrase carries a particular weight in a culture that has traditionally organised know...

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Indifference to the familiar

Liu Ling, the drinker among the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, wrote in praise of wine that his ideal man listens and does not hear thunder, 熟视不睹泰山之...

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Foresight and insight

Mencius describes heaven's arrangement as one where those who understand first bring those who understand later to understanding — the first to know (...

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Pursue understanding

Four characters from the Great Learning that Chinese philosophy then argued about for eight hundred years: investigate (格) things (物) and thereby exte...

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Agree on the common, shelve the rest

This is a twentieth-century diplomatic phrase rather than a classical one, and it is bound up with Zhou Enlai's speech at the Bandung Conference in 19...

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Backing a case with wide-ranging citation

To seek broadly (旁征) and quote extensively (博引). It names a manner of arguing, one in which evidence is gathered from many directions and the case is ...

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Knowledgeable and retentive

The Book of Rites pairs them: widely informed (博闻) and retaining strongly (强记), listed among the marks of an educated person. The older form writes th...

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Seek outside perspective

The Old Book of Tang records a dispute over which recension of a classic should stand. Yuan Xingtan, who had done the work and been overruled, made th...

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Unbiased perspective

The other half of 当局者迷，旁观者清, from the same passage of the Old Book of Tang and the same chess image: the onlooker (旁观者) sees clearly (清) precisely bec...

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Invaluable writing

Lü Buwei, merchant turned chancellor of Qin, assembled scholars to compile the encyclopaedic work that carries his name, then had it hung at the gate ...

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Eloquent and insightful

珠玑 is two kinds of pearl, the round and the irregular, and the phrase claims that every single character (字字) is one. It is applied to writing and to ...

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Eloquent and persuasive

Wang Yan, asked about the philosopher Guo Xiang's talk, said that listening to him was like water pouring from a river hung overhead — pouring and nev...

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Wit arriving in a run

Clever words (妙语) strung continuously (连珠) — the second half names a specific thing, pearls threaded on a cord, where the value is in each one and the...

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Prepare in advance

The Book of Changes gives the underlying instruction — the superior person thinks about trouble and guards against it beforehand — and this is its com...

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Foresight and vision

High (高) looking (瞻), far (远) gazing (瞩) — a person on high ground, seeing distance rather than detail. The compliment is specifically about scale of ...

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Attention to detail

Fine (精) carving (雕) and detailed (细) cutting (刻) — the vocabulary of the workshop, jade and wood and seal-stone, where the material permits no correc...

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Reading brings wisdom

Emperor Taizong of Song commissioned a vast encyclopaedia and then undertook to read the whole of it, three scrolls a day, finishing in a year. Told h...

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Win-win outcome

In the Yuan play about the chain of stratagems the line is spoken to Wang Yun, by a man pressing him to hand Diaochan over: give her to me and it is c...

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Thorough attention

Every face (面面) reached (俱到). The phrase is genuinely double-edged and learners should hear both sides. Used warmly it praises thoroughness, the plan ...

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Diligent study

Ten years (十年) at a cold (寒) window (窗) — unheated, because warming a study through a northern winter cost money, and the window because that was wher...

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Diligent in learning

The hand (手) that does not put down (不释) the scroll (卷). Cao Pi used it of his father Cao Cao, who went on reading through the campaigns — 虽在军旅，手不释卷 —...

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Logical and organized

A Chan expression before it was anything else, meaning that the Way (道) is present at every point (头头) — wherever you put your hand down, that is it. ...

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Foresight or intuition

卜 is divination by heat-cracked bone and shell, the oldest recorded Chinese writing system's original purpose. To know (知) first (先) without having di...

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Visionary foresight

Cao Cao asked Yang Biao why he had grown so thin. Yang Biao answered that he lacked Jin Midi's clarity (明) of seeing (见) in advance (先) and still carr...

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Preconceived notions

What enters (入) first (先) becomes (为) the master (主). The Book of Han uses it in warning an emperor whose favourites had established themselves in his...

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Completely ignorant

Ancient Chinese anatomy credited the heart with apertures (窍) through which understanding was thought to pass. The Lüshi Chunqiu reports that when the...

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Tailor to circumstances

Wu Zixu, advising the king of Wu on building a state, is recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue as arguing that walls, fields and defe...

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Ponder thoroughly

Thinking (思) to the left (左) and considering (想) to the right (右). Its value is in the picture of the head physically turning. What it describes is no...

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Not confined to a single mould

Gong Zizhen, in the year 1839, wrote a poem asking heaven to rouse itself and send down talent 不拘一格 — not confined (不拘) to a single (一) mould (格). Chi...

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Humble self-assessment

Talent (才) sparse (疏) and learning (学) shallow (浅). The formula is old: Gu Yong opens a memorial in the Book of Han with 材朽学浅，不通政事 — my abilities rott...

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Speaks in finished prose

The Book of Songs praises the people of the capital for speech that has pattern in it — 出言有章 — and the idiom sharpens this: what leaves (出) the mouth ...

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A tiny change that makes something excellent

Daoist legend credits certain adepts with the power to touch (点) a stone (石) and make it gold (成金), and the phrase began as straightforward alchemy. I...

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Out of context

In Spring and Autumn China, educated men quoted the Odes at each other, and the etiquette allowed cutting a stanza (断章) loose from its poem and taking...

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Targeted solutions

This insightful idiom originates from the story of the renowned physician Hua Tuo (华佗) during the late Eastern Han dynasty. In a time of widespread il...

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Supernatural craftsmanship

The Zhuangzi tells of the woodworker Qing, whose bell-stand was so fine that people said no human hand had made it. Asked his secret, he described fas...

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Youthful potential

Confucius said that those born later (后生) are to be held in awe (可畏) — how do we know that the ones coming will not equal the present? The second half...

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Artistic depth

Su Shi wrote a matched pair about Wang Wei, who was both a major poet and a major painter: 味摩诘之诗，诗中有画；观摩诘之画，画中有诗 — taste his poems and there is painti...

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Artistry that leaves no trace

Chan Buddhist texts describe an antelope (羚羊) that sleeps by hanging (挂) its horns (角) over a branch so that its feet leave no scent on the ground and...

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Too many choices lead nowhere

In 《列子·说符》 a neighbour of Yang Zhu loses (亡) a sheep (羊) and sets out with a crowd to find it. They return empty-handed: the road (路) forked (歧), and ...

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Hide incompetence in a crowd

Han Feizi records that King Xuan of Qi loved to hear the yu (竽), a reed mouth organ, played by an ensemble of three hundred at once. A man known as Mr...

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Environment shapes a child

Liu Xiang's Biographies of Exemplary Women tells how the mother (母) of Meng Ke (孟) — Mencius — moved house three (三) times (迁) for her son's sake. The...

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Diligent, repeated study

Books in Confucius's day were bamboo slips strung together with leather (韦) thongs. The Records of the Grand Historian says that in his later years he...

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Take precautions before disaster

A guest noticed that his host's chimney ran straight up beside a stack of firewood, and advised him to bend (曲) the flue (突) and move (徙) the wood (薪)...

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Distort the substance to fit the form

The Huainanzi asks what kind of person, finding the shoe too small, would pare (削) the foot (足) to fit (适) it (履), or cut off the head to suit the hat...

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Substitute one thing for another

From Mencius (《孟子·梁惠王上》). King Xuan of Qi (齐宣王) saw an ox being led past his hall to be sacrificed to consecrate a new bell. Unable to bear its trembl...

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Preserve a form so its meaning survives

From the Analects (《论语·八佾》, 3.17). In Confucius's day the rulers of Lu no longer attended the monthly new-moon ceremony in person, but a sheep was sti...

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Blessings settle where the mind is calm

From Zhuangzi (《庄子·人间世》), in the passage on the 'fasting of the heart' (心斋). Confucius, as Zhuangzi imagines him, tells his disciple Yan Hui: 'look at...

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Refined art appreciated by few

From Song Yu's Reply to the King of Chu (宋玉《对楚王问》), from the Warring States period. Asked why so few people praised him, Song Yu described a singer in...

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