01 02 03 04 Introduction 05 06 By Haiwang Yuan 07 08 09 10 In English, set phrases and expressions can be called adages, aphorisms, 11 idioms, maxims, proverbs, sayings, and even winged words—all of which 12 have subtle shades of meaning. Students of English may be confused to 13 learn that an “adage” can be defined as an “aphorism,” which is in turn 14 more colloquially known as a saying. They only grow more confounded 15 to hear that a “maxim” may refer to an “adage,” that can also, sometimes, 16 be an “epigram.” 17 This confusion is also true for Chinese shuyu 熟语 (idioms), a generic 18 word for Chinese set phrases and expressions. Shuyu have subcategories, 19 for example guanyongyu 惯用语 (a commonly used phrase or a colloquial 20 usage), yanyu 谚语 (a farmers’ saying or an old saw), xiehouyu 歇后语 (a 21 two-part allegorical saying), geyan 格言 (a maxim, motto, or aphorism), 22 and chengyu 成语 (a proverb). 23 Chengyu is commonly translated as “proverb,” but the English “prov- 24 erb” and the Chinese chengyu are not exactly the same. The Merriam- 25 Webster Dictionary defines “proverb” as “a brief popular epigram or 26 maxim” or an “adage,” which it explains as “a saying often in metaphori- 27 cal form that embodies a common observation.” Close to those definitions, 28 the Chinese chengyu, however, has its own characteristics: 29 First of all, the number of characters that form a chengyu is normally 30 limited to between three and ten, but the majority of chengyu are formed 31 of four characters, as the Chinese have always had a penchant for even 32 numbers and symmetry (in language). 33 Secondly, most of the above-mentioned subcategories of shuyu can 34 transform into an actual chengyu by adjusting their structure and number 35 of characters. This is particularly true for the two-part allegorical sayings 36 (xiehouyu). Unique to the Chinese language, a xiehouyu is a two-part enig- 37 matic folk simile that starts off with a basic statement describing an actual N38 x Becoming a Dragon * 四十则成语 01 situation and finishes with an unexpected twist, thereby creating a humor- 02 ous or witty effect. More often than not, the second part of a xiehouyu acts 03 like an answer to a riddle posed in the first part and is often omitted. 04 This is very much like dropping “do as the Romans do” and leaving only 05 “When in Rome…” in the popular English proverb. Therefore, Chinese 06 speakers often use the chengyu “Eight Immortals crossing the sea” (ba xian 07 guo hai 八仙过海) and omit the latter part of the original xiehouyu “each 08 demonstrating his or her own unique skill” (ge xian qi neng 各显其能). 09 Some other xiehouyu-turned-chengyu included in this book are “the tree 10 likes it calm, but the wind won’t stop” (shu yu jing er feng bu zhi, zi yu 11 yang er qin bu dai 树欲静而风不止，子欲养而亲不待), and “Sai Weng loses his 12 horse” (Sai Weng shi ma, yan zhi fei fu 塞翁失马，焉知非福). 13 Thirdly, a great number of chengyu can be classified asdiangu 典故, a 14 Chinese term for “classical allusions” or “literary quotations.” In other 15 words, a diangu is a story or a quote from traditional poetry or prose found 16 in ancient books or records. As some of these quotes have become chengyu, 17 their meaning is often only clear to those who are familiar with the content 18 and context of the original source. Not all diangu are chengyu, and, by the 19 same token, not all chengyu have diangu in them. In this book, we include 20 predominantly chengyu that originated from diangu (we refer to them as 21 “proverb stories”), because these are the most interesting stories for lan- 22 guage learners or non-Chinese speakers. 23 Some of these proverb stories are about ancient people, as in the chengyu 24 “sleeping on sticks and eating bile” (wo xin chang dan 卧薪尝胆), which came 25 from the story of King Fu Chai of the state of Yue during the Warring States 26 period. Some are about historical events, such as “three people can create 27 a tiger” (san ren cheng hu 三人成虎), the Chinese equivalent of “fake news,” 28 which originated from an occurrence during the Warring States period 29 when the king of Wei, convinced by repeated rumors about a tiger, began 30 to distrust his favored minister. Others are about Chinese myths, fables, 31 and legends. For example, “heaven separated from earth” (kai tian pi di 32 开天辟地) comes from a Chinese genesis myth; “the fox assuming the 33 power of the tiger” (hu jia hu wei 狐假虎威) tells the fable of a fox trick- 34 ing a tiger into fearing him; and “high mountains, flowing water” (gao 35 shan liu shui 高山流水) comes from a legend of a musician being loyal to 36 someone who is keenly appreciative of his talent. There are other sources 37 of proverb stories, such as quotations from famous historical figures, as 38N in the case of “no tiger´s den, no tiger´s cub” (bu ru hu xue, yan de huzi Introduction xi 不入虎穴，焉得虎子), a phrase uttered by the Eastern Han dynasty states- 01 man Ban Chao. 02 These proverb stories are meaningfully succinct and vividly expressive. 03 Therefore, judicious use of proverbs in Chinese writing or formal conver- 04 sation is regarded as a sign of good education (and excellent language 05 skills) rather than pedantic showing-off of one’s knowledge or repetition 06 of clichés. For this reason, the mastery of a certain amount of frequently 07 used chengyu is essential to the learning process for a serious student 08 of Chinese. Replete with summaries of prior experiences, quotes from 09 famous ancient sages, as well as myths, legends, and fables, the proverb 10 stories open a window through which any reader of this book can gain a 11 glimpse into the otherwise mysterious and fascinating big picture of Chi- 12 nese culture. 13 During its 5,000-year-long history, Chinese has generated innumera- 14 ble proverbs. There is a proverb for almost any situation. A Comprehensive 15 Dictionary of Chinese Idioms (Zhongguo chengyu da cidian, Shanghai cishu 16 chubanshe 2007) has identified more than 18,000 chengyu. The New Chinese 17 Dictionary (Xinhua zidian) includes 31,922 while the online Chinese Dictio- 18 nary (http://www.hydcd.com/) claims to contain 51,398. With such num- 19 bers, we have to address the question of why and how the forty proverbs 20 for the first volume of this book were selected. To be frank, the sheer size 21 of the pool of chengyu made the selection a daunting task. Instead of rein- 22 venting the wheel, however, we built our list upon the experiences and 23 results of numerous Chinese teachers and linguists, looking at their selec- 24 tions of proverbs for textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools 25 in China. We then selected forty chengyu with compelling stories (diangu) 26 to arouse the interest of anyone who picks up the book. Meanwhile, we 27 admit that picking the “perfect” forty would be mission impossible. As 28 for classifying the proverbs by difficulty levels instead of by subject or 29 other methods, we listened to the suggestions from teachers of Chinese 30 that we were in contact with via social media networks. These levels of 31 difficulty are guidelines, and we expect teachers who use the book to 32 apply the proverbs to their curriculum as they see fit. For this purpose, 33 we have provided the convenience of an alphabetical list (by pinyin) and 34 a list by subject. The chengyu and their stories, as well as the annotated 35 vocabulary and sample sentences are all written in English and simplified 36 Chinese. The bilingual nature of the book is designed to help both native 37 and non-native speakers of Chinese to learn the chengyu proverbs. N38 xii Becoming a Dragon * 四十则成语 01 While we hope that teachers and students will find this book instruc- 02 tive, we also hope that it will be useful to a wide range of readers inter- 03 ested in Chinese culture, whether or not they intend to learn the language. 04 After all, reading proverb stories such as those found in this book is one of 05 the most entertaining ways to begin to understand the collective psyche 06 and consciousness of the Chinese people. 07 08 09 Haiwang Yuan is professor at the Department 10 of Library Public Services at Western Kentucky 11 University and a guest professor at his alma 12 mater, Nankai University in China. He has 13 authored and edited seven monographs and 14 translated many books from Chinese to English. 15 Professor Yuan is the editor of Berkshire´s This Is 16 China: The First 5,000 Years (2010), and a contrib- 17 utor to the award-winning 5-volume Berkshire 18 Encyclopedia of China (2009). He also serves as 19 a consulting editor for Berkshire´s online resource ChinaConnectU. His 20 book Princess Peacock: Tales from the Other Chinese Peoples (2008) won the 21 2009 Aesop Accolade Award from the American Folklore Society. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38N.