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Chengyu (tr=set phrase) are a type of traditional Chinese 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 (), which also include collocations (), two-part allegorical sayings called xiehouyu, and proverbs ().
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.
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 (), 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 "" ( , 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 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 ( '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' (，, ), 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' (空穴來風, 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' (素面朝天) 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 (言) 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, '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 motifse.g., mountains, water, and the Moonare numerous. Works considered masterpieces of Chinese literaturesuch as the Four Great Classical NovelsThe 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. – 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 '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.
| + Examples in Chinese | |||
| 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 | |
| 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 Han | 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 () | 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 | adding the finishing touch to something | 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 | ||
| to wear embroided clothing and return to one's hometown | return to humble origins after making it big | ||
| as easy as turning over one's hand | for something to be very easy | See Mencius | |
| to learn the walk of Handan | to imitate others, and lose one's own abilities in the process | See Learning the Walk of Handan |
| +Sino-Vietnamese Idioms !Classical Chinese (Hán văn, ) !Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc Ngữ, ) !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 |
| +Native Vietnamese Idioms !Chữ Hán Nôm () !Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc Ngữ, ) !Meaning | ||
| Ăn miếng trả miếng | Tit for tat; literally, "eat a piece, pay back a piece" | |
| Ghét cay ghét đắng | To have an extreme and utter hatred, literally, "Hate spiciness, hate bitterness" | |
| 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" | |
| 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" |
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