白云苍狗 perception is ever-evolving

白 bái: white

云 yún: cloud

苍 cāng: gray

狗 gǒu: dog

Surprise — it’s not a war story! This idiom comes from a poem by Tang dynasty poet Du Fu.

There was once an aspiring poet named Wang Liyou whose wife left him because he was poor. The town gossip mill started churning and people began to suspect that Wang Liyou had been the one to leave his wife because he was having an affair.

Du Fu, however, could see the truth of the situation and subsequently wrote a poem about Wang Liyou’s troubles. The poem is called 可吹 kě chuī and it contains an iconic line about the ever-changing nature of human perception. Du Fu points out that clouds in the sky can take on many forms, and often just as quickly as we recognize a familiar shape in them, they change form once again. Thus, a fluffy white cloud can just as easily be perceived as a gray dog.

按兵不动 To bide one’s time

按 àn: to press down (e.g. a button); to hold

兵 bīng: troops, soldiers

不 bù: no/not

动 dòng: to move

Lots of Chinese idioms come from war stories, and this is indeed one of them.

During the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE), the kingdom of Jin was plotting against the kingdom of Wei. Zhao Jianzi was planning a military attack against Wei and ordered a government official, Shi Mo, to run ahead to Wei, determine the strength of their forces, and report back within a month.

A month came and went with no word from Shi Mo. In fact, it took six whole months for him to return.

Obviously, Zhao Jianzi was pissed and demanded to know why it had taken Shi Mo so long. Shi Mo told him that times had changed in Wei — their military is now stronger than ever, and the people are feeling very patriotic. Confucius and his disciples are now also wholehearted supporters of Wei (that’s quite a Big Deal™️). Shi Mo concluded that it would be extremely difficult to overthrow Wei at this point in time.

Zhao Jianzi, being the wise warmonger that he was, heeded Shi Mo’s advice. He 按兵不动 — ordered his troops not to move, to wait for a more opportune time to overthrow Wei.

Edited 11.12.22: Added dates and changed a name — it was actually the state of Jin that targeted Wei.

暗送秋波 to surreptitiously cast flirtatious glances

暗送秋波 àn sòng qiū bō lit. ‘darkness send autumn waves’

This idiom originates from 三国演义 ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ (c. 200 AD), a famous piece of literature written by Luo Guanzhong.

Toward the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, General Dong Zhuo usurped the ruling power with the help of his adopted son, Lü Bu. The peasants were suffering greatly and the dynasty’s chancellors despised Dong Zhuo. The head chancellor and minister of education, Wang Chongsu, wanted to remove Dong Zhuo but, as was merely a scholar, had no power to do so. His concubine, Diaochan, saw her master’s distress and offered to help. The chancellor devised a plan.

One day, Wang Chongsu invited Lü Bu to his house and ordered Diaochan to flirt with Lü Bu as she served them. Lü Bu fell in love with her instantly and began courting her. Just as the lovers began entertaining the idea of marriage, Wang Chongsu abruptly gave Diaochan to Dong Zhuo, and told Lü Bu that he had no choice as Dong Zhuo was so powerful. Lü Bu killed Dong Zhuo to save his bride, exactly as Wang Chongsu had planned.

Language/cultural note:

秋波 ‘autumn waves’ was often used in traditional Chinese poetry to describe women’s eyes. While this idiom originally meant ‘to secretly cast flirtatious glances’, now it has the added connotation of doing so with an ulterior motive.

刘玉民、主编。“中国成语故事” 安徽人民出版社; 第1版。2008年11月1日出版。

包藏祸心 To conceal evil intentions

‪包藏祸心 bāo cáng huò xīn (lit. cover-hide-harm-heart)

From c. 400 BC. Gong Sunduan, an official of the State of Zheng, offered his daughter in marriage to Gong Ziwei, a general of the State of Chu. The small state Zheng hoped this would strengthen its relationship with Chu and place them under Chu’s protection, but the State of Chu had other plans. In the days preceding the wedding, Gong Ziwei paraded countless men and horses toward Zheng under the guise of them being wedding attendees. His plan was to complete the ceremony and then attack Zheng from the inside. A Zheng official, however, deduced Gong Ziwei’s plan and stopped his procession outside the city gates, declaring that Zheng was not large enough to accommodate so many guests and they would therefore need to have the wedding outside the walls. Gong Ziwei tried to argue, but it was no use: he had been foiled. He married Gong Sunduan’s daughter and left quietly shortly thereafter.

Language/cultural note

The notion of one’s “true” character residing in the heart is nothing foreign to speakers of most Indoeuropean languages, but the Chinese word 心 ‘heart’ actually occupies a slightly different semantic space than the English word. 心 xīn can also be used in contexts where English speakers would distinguish mind as opposed to heart. The study of psychology, for example, is 心理学 xīn lǐ xué, lit. ‘heart-principles-study’; . 脑子 nǎo zi, on the other hand, is used when speaking about the brain itself or actual neurological processes.

刘玉民、主编。“中国成语故事” 安徽人民出版社; 第1版。2008年11月1日出版。

爱屋及乌 To love sth as well as its flaws

爱屋及乌 ài wū jí wū lit. ‘love-house-and-crows’

This idiom originates from a historical text of the Shang Dynasty, written sometime before 300 BC.

It was the final days of the Shang Dynasty. The ruler of the nearby State of Zhou had just died, and his son Wu of Zhou (c. 1000 BC) inherited the throne and his father’s legacy. He convened his advisors, including the military guru Jiang Ziya, and with their support decided to attack the capitol city of Shang. The city was decimated, Shang fell, and the Western Zhou Dynasty began.

After all was said and done, King Wu of Zhou asked his advisors what should be done with the surviving subjects of the Shang kingdom. His brother said, “I once heard a saying: ‘Slaughter the guilty, spare the innocent.’ Does that help?” King Wu shook his head. Jiang Ziya said, “I have heard the reasoning: ‘If you love a person, you will love the crows on their roof just as much. If you hate a person, you will hate even walls of their house.’ So kill them all, bar none. Does that help?” The king was still not satisfied. Finally, a third advisor said: “I think you ought to let every one of them go home to cultivate their own land.” King Wu was pleased with this advice. He believed that this was the only way to rule peacefully.

刘玉民、主编。“中国成语故事” 安徽人民出版社; 第1版。2008年11月1日出版。

爱不释手 to love something too much to part with it

爱不释手 ài bù shì shǒu lit. ‘love-not-release-hand’

This idiom originated from a comment made by a Liang Dynasty (502–557) ruler Xiao Tong about the poetry of Tao Yuanming. Xiao Tong said he loved the poet’s essays so much that he could not put them down, and ultimately compiled an anthology of Tao’s poems and essays 《陶渊明集序》 ‘Tao Yuanming’s Collected Works.’

刘玉民、主编。“中国成语故事” 安徽人民出版社; 第1版。2008年11月1日出版。