Posts Tagged ‘learn mandarin’

• Chinese Podcast – 优孟衣冠 You Meng in disguise – Learn mandarin

  Date: 2010.07.28 | Category: Chinese Podcast, learn Chinese, learn mandarin | Response: 0

  优孟衣冠

  典出《史记·卷百二十六·滑稽列传第六十六》：“孟曰：‘妇言慎无为，楚相不足为也。如孙叔敖之为楚相，尽忠为廉以治楚，楚王得以霸。今死，其子无立锥之地，贫困负薪以自饮食。必如孙叔敖，不如自杀。’”

  《清·李沂·秋星阁诗话·审趋向》：“溯而上之，当学汉、魏，但恐徒得汉、魏之糟粕耳？‘优孟衣冠’，不足贵也。”

  《清·文康·儿女英雄传·第三十九回》：“今日之下，你四位还要合台上这个‘优孟衣冠’的西楚霸王接演这本‘侍坐言志’的续编，我以为也就大可不必了！”

  春秋时孙叔敖为楚相，年老逝世后，其妻与子困苦过活。孙叔敖临死前，尝言于其子。若日后生活穷困，可告于优孟。优孟知其情后，便穿戴孙叔敖衣帽，仿孙叔敖 音容笑貌，往楚庄王处敬酒祝寿。优孟扮之维妙维肖，庄王以为孙叔敖复活，拟再拜之为相。优孟乘机打蛇随棍上曰：“孙叔敖生前为官清廉，尽心竭力为大王效 命，死后其子仅打柴养母，可见楚相不可为也。”楚庄王闻后，当即封寝丘地于孙叔敖之子。成语“优孟衣冠”据此故事而来。

  “优孟衣冠”本指登场演戏，亦喻扮古人或仿效他人。

  You Meng in disguise — To carry out designs under a false cloak; to act a part

  About 2,600 years ago, during the Spring and Autumn Period, King Zhuang of the State of Chu was mad about horses.  He dressed his favorite horse in embroidered clothes, let it live in a beautiful house and sleep in a bed at night, and fed it with preserved jujube fruit.  Moreover, after the horse died, he required officials to hold a funeral for it, the same as the funeral of a high official. The court officials all thought this was wrong, so they objected.  However, King Zhuang said: “Whoever dares to oppose my decision will be put to death. ” So nobody dared to persuade him to abandon his plan.

  You Meng, a famous actor, was a very clever chap.  Hearing about this, he went to meet King Zhuang.  As soon as he entered the palace, he wept.  King Zhuang was very surprised.  He asked You Meng: “Why are you so sad? ”

  You Meng sobbed: “The thing you cherished most in your life is your horse. Now it is dead.  Since Chu is a very big, rich state, we don’t lack anything.  I heard that you wanted to bury your horse as an official.  I don’t think this is good enough.  Please give it a king’s burial. ”

  King Zhuang asked him: “How shall I hold its funeral then? ”

  You Meng answered: “Give it a carved jade coffin, choose the best timber to cover the coffin, and tell soldiers and the common people to build the tomb.  On the day of the funeral procession, ask the visitors from Qi and Zhao to walk at the front, and those from Han and Wei to follow at the back.  In addition, build a temple for your horse and grant it ten thousand-hu of land.  Only by doing so will dukes in other states know you care for horses, but not people. ”

  King Zhuang understood what You Meng meant.  He sighed: “I didn’t realize that my mistake is so serious.”  So he changed his mind, and didn’t hold a funeral for his horse.

  Sun Shu’ao, the Prime Minister of Chu, knew that You Meng was a wise and able man. So he treated You Meng well.  When he was dying, he told his son: “After I die, you must be poor.  You can go to ask You Meng for help. ”

  Several years later, Sun’s son became so poor that he had to make his living by cutting firewood.  One day, he ran into You Meng and said to him: “I’m Sun Shu’ao’s son.  Before my father died, he told me that if I became poor, I could come to ask you for help.” You Meng said: “OK, let me try.  Please don’t go far away, or I won’t be able to find you.”
  You Meng went back home and picked out some of the clothes Sun had left him.  He wore them and began to imitate Sun’s manner.  After one year, he looked and acted very much like Sun Shu’ao.  On King Zhuang’s birthday, he went to congratulate him.  Seeing You Meng, the king was so surprised.  He thought Sun Shu’ao had come back from the dead.  He was delighted and wanted to make You Meng the new prime minister. You Meng said: “I need to discuss this with my wife.  Please give me three days.”

  Three days later, You Meng came to King Zhuang.  The king asked him: “What does your wife say?”

  You Meng replied: “She says being the prime minister of Chu isn’t worth it.  Take Sun Shu’ao for example.  He was loyal and devoted to helping you administer the state all his life, so that Chu become a strong state.  However, after he died, his son became so poor that he has to make his living by cutting and selling firewood.  So I would rather commit suicide than be a prime minister like Sun Shu’ao.”

  Hearing this, King Zhuang found Sun Shu’ao’s son and gave him four hundred-hu of land, so that he could live a comfortable life.

  From that story, people get the idiom You Meng Yi Guan to describe those who disguise themselves as others or act on the stage.  It is sometimes used to mock those who lack creativity and imitate other people’s writing styles.

  (Source: english.cri.cn)

• Chinese Podcast – 专心致志 – Learn mandarin

  Date: 2010.07.18 | Category: Chinese Podcast, learn Chinese, learn mandarin | Response: 0

  孟子说：“下棋，在技艺是比较容易的，可是如果不专心致志地学，也是学不好的。”

  弈秋是古代有名的棋手，有两个人慕名而来，同时拜他为师。弈秋一心想把自己的棋艺传授给他们，讲课特别认真。一个学生专心致志地听他讲课。另一个学生表面上也在认真地听课，而实际上思想很不集中。他看到大雁从窗外飞过，联想到要吃天鹅肉……

  弈秋讲完课，就叫两人对弈。学生根据老师的要求，就对弈起来。开局不久，就见分晓：一个从容不迫地能攻能守，一个手忙脚乱地应付。弈秋一看，两人的棋艺相差悬殊。他对棋艺差的学生说：“你们两个人一起听我讲课，他能专心致志，而你呢，心不在焉。”

  成语“专心致志“由此而来，形容一心一意，聚精会神。

  Wholly absorbed in, or devoted to, something — To devote oneself to something wholeheartedly and exclusively

  Long ago there lived a famous chess-player named Qiu.  He had two students learning to play chess from him. One of them concentrated very hard on learning the game. But the other wasn’t very interested, and didn’t think he should study very hard, and often daydreamed during class.  So when the teacher explained the chess manuals to them, the absent-minded student, though still sitting there and looking at the chess board, allowed his fancy to run wild.  “Now, there might be some geese flying in the sky.  It would be wonderful if I could shoot the geese and eat them.”  Since he always went off into wild flights of fancy like that, he didn’t hear a thing the teacher said.

  As a result, though the two students studied together under the same very good teacher, one of them became a famous chess-player, but nothing became of the other.

  From the phrase describing the manner in which the good student learnt the game, people drew the idiom Zhuan Xin Zhi Zhi.  We use it for those who do things with single-hearted devotion.  And in many cases, that’s the key to success.

  (Source: english.cri.cn)

• Chinese Podcast – 夜郎自大 – Learn mandarin

  Date: 2010.07.08 | Category: Chinese Podcast, learn Chinese, learn mandarin | Response: 0

  夜郎自大 (yè láng zì dà)

  The ludicrous conceit of the King of Yelang—Parochial arrogance

  An ancient legend tells of a woman who was washing clothes at the riverside. A baby’s faint cry interrupted her work.

  But when she looked up, she only saw a bamboo stem floating on the river. She heard the cry again, and it seemed to come straight from the bamboo. The woman picked up the bamboo and split it. To her great joy, she found a baby boy inside. She decided to raise the child on her own, and took him home. She gave him the name 竹 zhú, which means “bamboo”.

  And this little boy grew up to become King of Yelang, a tiny state in what is now Guizhou province, southwest China, during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). You might ask, how could this be possible? Well, the state was located far from civilization, in the middle of a vast mountain range. Poor communications and transportation cut Yelang completely off from the rest of the outside world.

  The state was so small that there were few young boys who were eligible to become King. The royal court could not afford to be very choosy.

  This was not the only problem facing Yelang. Local farmers could not produce much food, and owned almost no livestock.

  But these facts did not concern King Zhu. His mother, and later his court attendants, made him feel very important.

  One day, a representative of the mighty Han Dynasty finally located Yelang. The Han emperor decided to send an envoy to that tiny land. King Zhu was very arrogant, and didn’t know how to react. His first thought was to question the envoy, whether the Hans were important enough to receive him properly. He asked, “Which is larger, the Han Dynasty or my country?” Of course, King Zhu did not receive a very flattering answer.

  This story has been handed down from ancient times and spread across China. And the phrase 夜郎自大 (yè láng zì dà) is now used to describe those who are ignorant and ill-informed, and thus blinded by their self-conceit.

  (Source: english.cri.cn)