Chengyu

Chengyu (Template:Lang-zh) are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions, most of which consist of four Chinese characters. Chengyu were widely used in Literary Chinese and are still common in written vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language today. According to the most stringent definition, there are about 5,000 chengyu in the Chinese language, though some dictionaries list over 20,000. Chengyu are considered the collected wisdom of the Chinese culture, and contain the experiences, moral concepts, and admonishments from previous generations of Chinese speakers. Chengyu still play an important role in Chinese conversation and education. Chengyu are one of four types of formulaic expressions (Template:Zhi), which also include collocations (Template:Zhi), two-part allegorical sayings called xiehouyu, and proverbs (Template:Zhi).

While not the only idioms in Chinese, and not always four characters long, 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, Template:Zhi 'ten-thousand year lifespan without bound', a traditional expression to wish someone a long life that often appears on bowls and tableware, quotes the poem "Tian Bao" (, poem #166) in the Lesser Court Hymns section of the Classic of Poetry. More commonly, however, chengyu are created by succinctly paraphrasing or summarizing the original text, usually by selecting the most salient characters from the passage in question and inserting any necessary classical grammatical particles.

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 Template:Transliteration (), elementary and secondary school students in greater China learn chengyu as part of the classical curriculum in order to study the context from which the chengyu was born.

Often the four characters reflect the moral behind the story rather than the story itself. For example, the phrase "" ({{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Chinese-po4 fu3 chen2 zhou1.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handler, lit: "break the pots and sink the ships") is based on a historical account where the general Xiang Yu ordered his troops to destroy all cooking utensils and boats after crossing a river into the enemy's territory. He won the battle because of this "no-retreat" strategy. Thus, the idiom is used as a verb phrase with the meaning "to make an all-out effort to achieve success by the deliberate removal of recourse or backup." Similar phrases are known in the West, such as "Burning one's boats", "burning one's bridges", "Point of no return" or "Crossing the Rubicon".

Another example is ({{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Chinese-gua1 tian2 li3 xia4.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handler 'melon field, beneath the plums'), whose meaning relates to the appearance of misconduct or impropriety. It is derived from an excerpt of a Han-era poem (, Yuèfǔ Shī "Jūnzǐ Xíng"). The poem includes the lines 'don't adjust your shoes in a melon field, and don't tidy your hat under the plum trees' (, {{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Chinese-gua1 tian2 bu2 na4 li3.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handler), admonishing the reader to avoid situations where, however innocent, he might be suspected of doing wrong. The idiom is impossible to understand without the background knowledge of the origin of the phrase.

Some idioms have had their literal meanings overtake their original ones. For example, 'wind from an empty cave' (, kōng xué lái fēng), despite now being used to describe rumors without source, originally referred to rumors with actual, solid sources or reasons. Likewise, 'bare-faced facing the emperor' () is now used to describe beauty that does not require make-up, e.g., when entering court, while its original meaning was "to be confident in one's true look".

However, not all chengyu have stories to draw morals from. An example is 'speaking, yet without trust', referring to one who cannot be trusted despite what he says, an essentially deceitful person. It is generally acknowledged as a chengyu as it comes from the Analects. The idiom is succinct in its original meaning and would likely be intelligible to anyone learned in formal written Chinese, though Template:Transliteration () is no longer commonly used as a verb.

There are a few chengyu that are not four characters in length. An example is the seven-character 'The Old Drunkard's attention is not directed towards his wine'. This is a direct quote from Ouyang Xiu's essay An Account of Old Drunkard's Pavilion (), in which the author, as the Old Drunkard, expresses his true intention of enjoying the scenery of the mountains and rivers as he drinks. As an idiom, it expresses the situation where one does something with an ulterior though benign motive in mind.

Some chengyu have English equivalents. For example, Template:Linktext 'speak not from the bosom' and 'to speak with one's tongue in one's cheek' share idiomatic meanings. The Chinese not having conducted maritime explorations of the North Atlantic during imperial times, the expression 'one corner of an ice mountain' is a rare example of a chengyu that emerged in the early 20th century after contact with the West as a translation of the expression "tip of the iceberg," thus sharing both their literal and idiomatic meanings. Another expression 'extracting chestnuts from the fire', originating from a La Fontaine fable, means "to be duped into taking risks for someone else," used in much the same way as the expression "cat's paw" in English is another example of an "international" chengyu. Though they are recent in origin, they are constructed using the vocabulary and syntax of Literary Chinese and fits within the four-character scheme, making them chengyu.

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 motifsTemplate:Snde.g., mountains, water, and the MoonTemplate:Sndare numerous. Works considered masterpieces of Chinese literatureTemplate:Sndsuch as the Four Great Classical Novels – 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 Template:Linktext 'connect the chengyu' that involves someone calling out an idiom, with someone else then being supposed to think of another idiom to link up with the first one, so that the last character of the first idiom is the same as the first character of the second idiom, and so forth.

Chinese examples

The following three examples show that the meaning of the idiom can be totally different by only changing one character.

• (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) : "One day, a thousand autumns."
  • Meaning: implies rapid changes; one day equals a thousand years
• (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) : "One day, a thousand miles."
  • Meaning: implies rapid progress; traveling a thousand miles in a day
• (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) (Template:Transliteration) : "One day, three autumns."
  • Meaning: greatly missing someone; one day feels as long as three years

Examples in Chinese

Chengyu	Gloss	Meaning	Etymology
(Template:Transliteration)	kill two eagles with one arrow	kill two birds with one stone, i.e. to achieve two aims at once	See History of the Northern Dynasties
(Template:Transliteration)	break the cauldrons and sink the boats	burn bridges, i.e. commit oneself irrevocably	See Battle of Julu
(Template:Transliteration)	call a deer a horse	deliberately misrepresent	See Zhao Gao
(Template:Transliteration)	so happy as to forget Shu	indulge in pleasures	See Liu Shan
(Template:Transliteration)	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
(Template:Transliteration)	a frog in the bottom of the well	a person with limited outlook	See Zhuangzi
(Template:Transliteration)	grind an iron bar down to a fine needle	to persevere in a difficult task	See Li Bai
(Template:Transliteration)	guard a tree-stump to wait for rabbits	wait idly for a reward	See Han Feizi
(Template:Transliteration)	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
(Template:Transliteration)	Three men make a tiger	repeated rumor becomes a fact	See Warring States Records
(Template:Transliteration)	return the jade to Zhao	to return something intact to its rightful ownerTemplate:Rp	See Mr. He's jade
(Template:Transliteration)	old man from the frontier lost his horse	a blessing in disguise	See Huainanzi
(Template:Transliteration)	carve the boat in search of the sword	approach without considering the reality of a situation	See Lüshi Chunqiu
(Template:Transliteration)	take chestnuts out of the fire	Someone acting in another's interest (cat's-paw)	Derived from The Monkey and the Cat
(Template:Transliteration)	carrying a bramble and ask for punishment	offer a humble apology	See Lian Po
(Template:Transliteration)	talk about military tactics on paper	theoretical discussion useless in practice	See Zhao Kuo
(Template:Transliteration)	to add feet when drawing a snake	to improve something unnecessarily	See Warring States Records
(Template:Transliteration)	to add eyes when painting a dragon	adding the finishing touch to something	See Zhang Sengyou
(Template:Transliteration)	playing the guqin to a cow	to communicate well, you need to understand your audience	See Mouzi Lihuolun
(Template:Transliteration)	swallow like tiger and devour like wolf	eating food quickly and in a messy manner
(Template:Transliteration)	to wear embroided clothing and return to one's hometown	return to humble origins after making it big
(Template:Transliteration)	as easy as turning over one's hand	for something to be very easy	See Mencius
(Template:Transliteration)	to learn the walk of Handan	to imitate others, and lose one's own abilities in the process	See Learning the Walk of Handan

• 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 is autological. Many of these idioms were adopted from their Chinese counterparts and have the same or similar meaning as in Chinese. The term refers to an idiom that comes from a specific text as the source. As such, the overwhelming majority of koji seigo comes from accounts of history written in classical Chinese. Although a great many of the Japanese four-character idioms are derived from the Chinese, many others are purely Japanese in origin. Some examples:

• Template:Linktext ka, chō, fū, getsu ("Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon"; beauties of nature)
• Template:Linktext ichigo ichie (once-in-a-lifetime experience)
• Template:Linktext okamehachimoku (a bystander's vantage point)
• Template:Linktext temaemiso (singing one's own praises; tooting one's own horn)
• Template:Linktext futamatagōyaku (double-dealer; time-server)
• Template:Linktext 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 sajaseongeo (Korean: ; Hanja: Template:Category handler). They have similar categorization to Japanese ones, such as gosaseongeo (; Template:Category handler) for historical idioms.

Vietnamese examples

Four word idioms or any idiom in Vietnamese are known as thành ngữ (chữ Hán: Template:Vi-nom, literally "set phrase/speech"). A large amount of idioms originating from Classical Chinese have been borrowed into the language, but there exists native counterparts to the Classical Chinese idioms. There are also many idioms that are Vietnamese in origin. Vietnamese idioms can be classified into Sino-Vietnamese idioms (Vietnamese: thành ngữ Hán Việt, chữ Hán Nôm: Template:Vi-nom) and native Vietnamese idioms (Vietnamese: thành ngữ thuần Việt, chữ Hán Nôm: Template:Vi-nom) that were once written in chữ Nôm, are now written in the Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet.

Sino-Vietnamese Idioms

Classical Chinese (Hán văn, Template:Vi-nom)	Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc Ngữ, Template:Vi-nom)	Meaning
Template:Vi-nom	Bĩ cực thái lai	The darkest hour is just before the dawn "The worst situation comes before a good one."
Template:Vi-nom	Tương thân tương ái	To be altruistic and charitable to each other, especially in times of crisis or disaster
Template:Vi-nom	Tận thiện tận mỹ	Very good or beautiful
Template:Vi-nom	Ôn cố tri tân	One should be able to derive new understanding while revising what one has learned.
Template:Vi-nom	Toàn tâm toàn ý	With all of one's heart; completely dedicated

File:Lên voi xuống chó.png

Native Vietnamese Idioms

Chữ Hán Nôm (Template:Vi-nom)	Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc Ngữ, Template:Vi-nom)	Meaning
Template:Vi-nom	Ăn miếng trả miếng	Tit for tat; literally, "eat a piece, pay back a piece"
Template:Vi-nom	Ghét cay ghét đắng	To have an extreme and utter hatred, literally, "Hate spiciness, hate bitterness"
Template:Vi-nom	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"
Template:Vi-nom	Im lặng là vàng	Peace and quiet have great value; literally, "Peace and quiet is golden"
Template:Vi-nom	Lên voi xuống chó	To have ups and downs in one's life, to go from riches to rags; literally, "Going up on an elephant, going down on a dog"

In popular culture

The plot of the Taiwanese comedy-drama GG Precinct centres on people murdered for misquoting Chinese idioms.

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

• (Harvard University)(Digitized Jul 22, 2005)
• (Harvard University)(Digitized Mar 4, 2009)

External links

• Theme Idioms - 相關成語／相关成语 at Thinking Chinese.
• Search for Chinese idioms at Chinese Notes