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Dear Friends,
Did you know that 2010 is the Year of the Tiger in China? As one of the Chinese Zodiac signs, the tiger symbolizes bravery, justice, courage and dignity, in Han nationality. Throughout Chinese history, Chinese people have always endeared and even worshipped the tiger. There are numerous idioms, stories, sayings and fables that glorify it. The number of idioms that are centered around tigers already exceeds one hundred. In this newsletter, I will introduce to you some of the most commonly used words and phrases that deal with the tiger.
XieXie,
Xu Ying
The ChineseVoice Team
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Origin/Story:
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, warlords occupied the whole country. . Sun Ce, a promising young man, who followed in the footsteps of his father, Sun Jian, made preparations to advance northwards and seize LuJiang County. This was a well protected city, with the the Yangtze River to the south and the Huaishui River barrier to the north.
Sun Ce knew that he had no chance of defeating Liu Xun, the powerful warlord of the county. However, he exploited Liu Xun’s weaknesses-greed and arrogance, by sending him a letter, in which he flattered Liu and said he wished to be on good terms with him. Sun Ce also asks for help, in order to portray himself as being week and vulnerable. He said that the troops of Shangliao frequently breached the sovereignty of his region and that he had no way of retaliating, since his military was so weak. So he would be eternally greatful, if i General Liu could force Shangliao to surrender., Liu Xun felt extremely proud. The Shangliao region was such a rich area that Liu had been longing for it for many years. . Now that Sun Ce was so weak and incompetent, he didn't even think twice before leading tens of thousands of troops and horses to attack Shangliao, leaving an empty city.
Sun Ce was overjoyed and said: "The tiger has left his hill and now all we have to do is take it!" He then led the troops across the river and attacked Lu Jiang County.. Being met with no resistance, he of course succeeded. When Liu Xun finally finds out what happened, it was too late and he was left with no choice but to defect to Wei Country.
Meaning
调虎离山 literally means to get the tiger to leave its hill. Tiger: refers to the enemy; hill: the favorable position occupied by the enemy. It is an analogy to using some scheme, so as to make the other party abandon their position, making it easier to achieve the sought after goals. ,
Examples
| Speaker A: |
ɡānɡ cái wǒ men mínɡ mínɡ tīnɡ dào zhè biān yǒu shēnɡ yīn 。
刚才我们明明听到这边有声音。(We’ve clearly heard the sound this way.) |
| Speaker B: |
xiǎo tōu cónɡ nà biɑn pǎo le，wǒ men kě nénɡ zhōnɡ le tā de diào hǔ lí shān zhī jì 。
小偷从那边跑了，我们可能中了他的调虎离山之计。 (The thief ran that way. We may be tricked into going in the wrong direction by him.) |
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Origin/Story:
Once upon a time, a painter was drawing a tiger when his friend came and asked him to draw a horse. He had already finished drawing the tiger's head, so he continued his drawing, by adding the body of a horse. His eldest son, who accidentally saw the painting, asked him: "What is this?" He said: "It’s a horse". His second son also saw the picture and asked: "What is this?" He again answered: "It’s a tiger". One day, the eldest son saw a real tiger in the forest. He thought it was horse and wanted to ride it. Unfortunately, he was eaten by the tiger. The second son saw a horse and mistaking it for a tiger, shot the horse dead. Since then, people called the painter Mr. 马虎 (literally, Horse and Tiger).
Meaning
马马虎虎is used to describe a person that acts rashly or negligently. Over time, this idiom has taken on the meaning "so-so".
Examples
| Speaker A: |
nǐ zài zhōnɡ ɡuó xué le yì nián hàn yǔ ， shuō dé zěn me yànɡ ？
你在中国学了一年汉语，说得怎么样？ (You’ve been learning Chinese for one year. How can you speak?) |
| Speaker B: |
mǎ mǎ hu hu 。
马 马 虎 虎 。 (So so.) |
| Speaker A: |
tā huì jiàn kè hù shí wànɡ le dài zhònɡ yào zī liào 。
他 会 见 客 户 时 忘 了 带 重 要 资 料 。
（He forgot the important material when meeting the client.） |
| Speaker B: |
āi ， tā zuò shì zǒnɡ shì mǎ mǎ hu hu 。
唉 ， 他 做 事 总 是 马 马 虎 虎 。
(Sign, he always acts rashly and negligently.) |
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Origin/Story:
A hungry tiger, looking for some animals to eat, happens to catch a fox. The delighted tiger is ready to eat the fox. But the fox is very cunning. It said to the tiger: "I was sent by the god in charge of the beast. If you eat me, the god will certainly punish you severely. If you do not believe me, I'll prove it to you on the spot. –I'll walk in front of you, you follow behind me and you'll see that when the animals see me, they'll run away" The tiger thought: "Could this be true? If it's not, it still won't be too late to eat the fox". So with his head held high, the fox walked in front of the tiger, who stared ahead with eyes wide open. Sure enough, the tiger could see that the other animals were afraid of the tiger!
Meaning
The idiom describes the kind of person who always does things with the authority of others.
Examples
tā shì láo bǎn de qīn qi ， suó yǐ jīnɡ chánɡ hú jiǎ hǔ wēi ， mìnɡ lìnɡ wǒ men zuò zhè ɡe zuò nà ɡè 。
他是老板的亲戚，所以经常狐假虎威，命令我们做这个做那个。(He is a relative of the boss and always uses the authority of the superior, asking us to do this or do that.) |
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Origin/Story:
It’s a popular folk term. And here is a well-known story that takes place in 1972, when Mao Zedong met with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. When Mao was asked whether he learned English, he replied that he knew only a few English words, but do not understand the syntax. Kissinger, who never missed an opportunity for a joke said: "The chairman invented an English word." Mao said, "Yes, I invented an English vocabulary-paper tiger." Kissinger immediately retorted: "Paper tiger, right, it refers to us." The two sides laughed.
Meaning
纸老虎refers to the tiger paper models, and metaphors- things that look strong, but in reality are empty inside.
Examples
| Speaker A: |
tā yào ɡēn wǒ bǐ ɡōnɡ fu 。
他要跟我比功夫 。(He is challenging me with Kung Fu.) |
| Speaker B: |
bú yònɡ pà tā， suī rán kàn shànɡ qù hěn qiánɡ zhuànɡ， dàn shì ɡēn běn méi xué ɡuò ɡōnɡ fu， jiù shì zhǐ zhǐ láo hǔ 。
不用怕他，虽然看上去很强壮， 但是根本没学过功夫，就是只纸老虎。(Don’t be afraid. Though he looks strong, he never learned Kung Fu, so he is just a paper tiger.) |
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