China Popular Itineraries |
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1.3 Idioms Which Are Derived from Slang and Colloquialism |
* Pedantic terms ; literary jargons.
The four Chinese characters are all modal particles of the ancient Chinese language. In the classical literature of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dy-nasty, the above four characters were always used as a phrase to mean the du-ty of the men of letters. But later it was used to describe articles and speeches half literary and half vernacular, or to satirize the intellectuals who pay exces-sive attention to wording but do not know how to solve the real problems.
* To do woodwork before the door of Lu Ban, the master of carpenter -- display one's slight skill before an expert.
This idiom comes from a folk tale. Ban is the surname of Gong Shu Ban, a great inventor, a master carpenter and smith in Lu State in the years be-tween the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the beginning of Warring States Period. To do woodwork before the door of Lu Ban means showing off one s slight skill before an expert.
Later it is often used to satirize someone who is overrating his/her own a-bility.
* The three religions and nine schools of thought -- vari-ous religious sects and people in various trades.
The three religions refer originally to Confucianism, Buddhism and Tao-ism, and the nine schools of thought refer to the Confucian, the Taoist, the Yin-yang, the Legalist, the Logician, the Mohist, the Political Strategist, the Eceletic and the Agriculturist. It is recorded in The Achievements of Lit-erature and Art in the History of the Han Dynasty.
Later it is used to refer to vagrants or itinerant people of various trades and the trades themselves.
* To hesitate to pelt a rat for fear of smashing the dishes beside it ¨C donĄ¯t burn your house to rid it of the mouse.
The meaning of allusion is that one wants to pelt the rat but fears to smash the dishes beside the rat. It is narrated in Biography of Jia Yi, the outstanding statesman and writer in the beginning of the Han Dynasty in His-tory of the Han Dynasty.
Later it is used to mean that one scruples to eliminate evils or one is too scrupulous to eliminate evils.
* To substitute martens with tails of dogs -- a wretched sequel to a fine work.
It comes from Biography of Sima Lun, the Sovereign of Zhao State the Jin Dynasty.
"As soon as Sima Lun had usurped the throne, he ordered a general amnesty and changed the reign title as Jianshi, meaning reconstructing from the beginning. In that year, all the honest, royal, straight-forward persons, men of letters, brave generals were not enrolled into the ranks of the officials and not admitted into his palace, but all his conspirators were promoted, even his servile men were given titles of nobility. At every morning interview, the palace hall was crowded by various kinds of scoundrels. A proverb at that time had a good run: 'When short of martens, he uses tails of dogs instead.
The original meaning of the allusion was that Sima Lun, the Sovereign of Zhao State appointed officials in an indiscriminative way, but later it is used to mean substituting the good with the bad.
* Once spoken, a word cannot be overtaken, even by a teem of four horses -- what is said cannot be unsaid.
The phrase means that once a word is spoken it cannot be withdrawn.
Later it is used to mean that what has been said must be done.
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