Chengyu: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 21:18, 29 April 2024
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Chengyu (traditional Chinese:
While not the only idioms in Chinese, they are often referred to as Chinese idioms or four-character idioms.
Origins, construction, and interpretation
Chengyu are mostly derived from ancient literature, including the pre-Qin classics, poetry from all periods of Chinese history, and late imperial vernacular novels and short stories. A small number were constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries from Western source materials. Among the early classical literature, the lyrical imagery from the Classic of Poetry, and the detailed stories recorded in the Zuo Zhuan and the Records of the Grand Historian serve as particularly rich source materials for chengyu. Since the Shijing poems consist of four-character lines, some chengyu are direct quotes from the Classic of Poetry. For example,
As such, chengyu are fossilized expressions that use the vocabulary and follow the syntactic rules of Literary Chinese. Consequently, they convey information more compactly than normal vernacular speech or writing. They may contain subject and predicate and act as an independent clause (or even twin two-character independent clauses in parallel), or they may play the role of any part of speech in a sentence, acting syntactically as an adjective, adverb, verb, or noun phrase. In both speech and writing, they serve to succinctly convey a complex or multifaceted situation, scene, or concept, and used fittingly and elegantly, they also mark a speaker or writer's erudition.
The meaning of a chengyu usually surpasses the sum of the meanings carried by the four characters, as chengyu are generally meant to convey the message or moral of the myth, story or historical event from which they were derived. Thus, even after translation into modern words and syntax, chengyu in isolation are often unintelligible without additional explanation. Since they often contain a classical allusion, known as a diǎngù (
Often the four characters reflect the moral behind the story rather than the story itself. For example, the phrase "
Another example is
Some idioms have had their literal meanings overtake their original ones. For example, 'wind from an empty cave' (
However, not all chengyu have stories to draw morals from. An example is
There are a few chengyu that are not four characters in length. An example is the seven-character
Some chengyu have English equivalents. For example,
Chinese idioms can also serve as a guide through Chinese culture. Chengyu teach about motifs that were previously common in Chinese literature and culture. For example, idioms with nature motifs – e.g., mountains, water, and the Moon – are numerous. Works considered masterpieces of Chinese literature – such as the Four Great Classical Novels[4] – serve as the source for many idioms, which in turn condense and retell the story.
All Chinese people know idioms, though the total number known by any one individual will depend on their background. Idioms are such an important part of Chinese popular culture that there is a game called
Chinese examples
The following three examples show that the meaning of the idiom can be totally different by only changing one character.
一 日 千 秋 : "One day, a thousand autumns."- Meaning: implies rapid changes; one day equals a thousand years
一 日 千 里 : "One day, a thousand miles."- Meaning: implies rapid progress; traveling a thousand miles in a day
一 日 三 秋 : "One day, three autumns."- Meaning: greatly missing someone; one day feels as long as three years
Chengyu | Gloss | Meaning | Etymology |
---|---|---|---|
kill two eagles with one arrow | Kill two birds with one stone[clarification needed] | See History of the Northern Dynasties | |
break the cauldrons and sink the boats | burn bridges, i.e. commit oneself irrevocably | See Battle of Julu | |
call a deer a horse | deliberately misrepresent | See Zhao Gao | |
so happy as to forget Shu | indulge in pleasures | See Liu Shan | |
to say three in the morning and four in the evening | always changing (new meaning), a change without any substantive difference (original meaning) | See Zhuangzi | |
a frog in the bottom of the well | a person with limited outlook | See Zhuangzi | |
grind an iron bar down to a fine needle | to persevere in a difficult task | See Li Bai | |
guard a tree-stump to wait for rabbits | wait idly for a reward | See Han Feizi | |
to mend the pen after sheep are lost | close the stable door after the horse has bolted, i.e. try too late to prevent harm | See Warring States Records | |
Three men make a tiger | repeated rumor becomes a fact | See Warring States Records | |
return the jade to Zhao | to return something intact to its rightful owner | See Mr. He's jade | |
old man from the frontier lost his horse | a blessing in disguise | See Huainanzi | |
carve the boat in search of the sword | approach without considering the reality of a situation | See Lüshi Chunqiu | |
take chestnuts out of the fire | Someone acting in another's interest (cat's-paw) | Derived from The Monkey and the Cat | |
carrying a bramble and ask for punishment | offer a humble apology | See Lian Po | |
talk about military tactics on paper | theoretical discussion useless in practice | See Zhao Kuo | |
to add feet when drawing a snake | to improve something unnecessarily | See Warring States Records | |
to add eyes when painting a dragon | doing something so well that it becomes powerful. | See Zhang Sengyou | |
playing the guqin to a cow | to communicate well, you need to understand your audience | See Mouzi Lihuolun | |
swallow like tiger and devour like wolf | eating food quickly and in a messy manner |
- Four Gentlemen
- Four Treasures of the Study
- Three Friends of Winter
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Seek truth from facts
- When two tigers fight
- Mirror Flower, Water Moon
Japanese examples
Yojijukugo is the similar format in Japanese. The term yojijukugo (
花 鳥 風 月 ka, chō, fū, getsu ("Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon"; beauties of nature)一 期 一 会 ichigo ichie (once-in-a-lifetime experience)傍 目 八 目 okamehachimoku (a bystander's vantage point)手 前 味 噌 temaemiso (singing one's own praises; tooting one's own horn)二 股 膏 薬 futamatagōyaku (double-dealer; time-server)風 林 火 山 fū, rin, ka, zan ("wind, woods, fire, mountain"; military proverb coming from Sun Tzu's "Art of War"; see also Fūrinkazan)
Korean examples
The Korean equivalent are Sajaseong-eo (사자성어; Hanja:
Vietnamese examples
Four word idioms or any idiom in Vietnamese are known as thành ngữ (chữ Hán:
Classical Chinese (Hán văn, |
Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc Ngữ, 𡨸 |
Meaning |
---|---|---|
Bĩ cực thái lai | The darkest hour is just before the dawn "The worst situation comes before a good one." | |
Tương thân tương ái | To be altruistic and charitable to each other, especially in times of crisis or disaster | |
Tận thiện tận mỹ | Very good or beautiful | |
Ôn cố tri tân | One should be able to derive new understanding while revising what one has learned. | |
Toàn tâm toàn ý | With all of one's heart; completely dedicated |
Chữ Hán Nôm (𡨸 |
Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc Ngữ, 𡨸 |
Meaning |
---|---|---|
𫗒𠰳𫡽𠰳 | Ăn miếng trả miếng | Tit for tat; literally, "eat a piece, pay back a piece" |
𢢂𨐮𢢂𧃵 | Ghét cay ghét đắng | To have an extreme and utter hatred, literally, "Hate spiciness, hate bitterness" |
幔𡗶𥴜𡐙 | Màn trời chiếu đất | A situation where many people become homeless, especially after a disaster; literally, "to use the sky as a curtain and the land as a mat" |
Im lặng là vàng | Peace and quiet have great value; literally, "Peace and quiet is golden" | |
𨕭𤠅𠖈㹥 | Lên voi xuống chó | To have ups and downs in one's life, to go from riches to rags; literally, "Going up on a elephant, going down on a dog" |
See also
- Idiom
- Chinese characters
- Xiehouyu, typically longer Chinese proverbs
- Homophonic puns in Mandarin Chinese
- Proverbs commonly said to be Chinese
- Mulberry fields (idiom)
Dictionaries of Mandarin Chinese Idioms
- Herbert Allen Giles (1873). A dictionary of colloquial idioms in the Mandarin dialect. SHANGHAI: A.H. de Carvalho. pp. 65. Retrieved 10 February 2012.(Harvard University)(Digitized Jul 22, 2005)
- Herbert Allen Giles (1873). A dictionary of colloquial idioms in the Mandarin dialect. SHANGHAI: A.H. De Carvalho. pp. 65. Retrieved 10 February 2012.(Harvard University)(Digitized Mar 4, 2009)
- Jiao, Liwei; Kubler, Cornelius C.; Zhang, Weiguo (2013). 500 Common Chinese Idioms: An Annotated Frequency Dictionary (Kindle ed.). Oxon, UK: Routledge.
- Pan, Weigui (2000). A Chinese-English Dictionary of Chinese Idioms. Beijing: Sinolingua.
References
- ^ "Useful Chinese Chengyu for Daily Conversation". maayot. 27 August 2020. Retrieved 30 Aug 2020.
- ^ "Chinese Idioms or Chéngyǔ About Animals -". 2017-08-28. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
- ^ Lo, Wing Huen (2003). Best Chinese Idioms (in English and Chinese). Vol. Three. Translated by Sun, Li Jie. Peace Book. ISBN 962-238-338-6.
- ^ The Four Great Classical Novels are actually written in Early Vernacular Chinese, although they were intended for an educated audience and contain long passages in classical poetry and many classical allusions.
- ^ "Structure of Korean Idioms". Archived from the original on 2014-05-12. Retrieved 2014-05-10.
- ^ Structure of four character idioms".
External links
- Theme Idioms -
相關 成語 /相 关成语 at Thinking Chinese. - Search for Chinese idioms at Chinese Notes