Yang over at Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I’ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately – everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading chéngyǔ (成语 idiom) stories, because you’ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of “long long ago, far far away” fable.
In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 cóngqián, means “a long time ago”, your classic storybook beginning.
The second, 楚国人 chǔguórén, means “a man from the State of Chu“. The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you’ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times. Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: “China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.” Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 bǎojiàn, which means “a double-edged sword”. How fable-y is that, huh?
I’d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 yìdòng, meaning “to be moving” or “mobile”. This word is quite common – it’s used to refer to people who move often, and also to “mobile” phones (the cell provider “China Mobile” has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).
Okay, let’s do this. And thanks again to Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks.
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从前 – cóng qián – A long time ago
爱惜 – ài xī – Cherish
一不小心 – yī bù xiǎo xīn – Accidentally
记号 – jì hào – Notch, notation made to remember something
从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。
宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。
Great Job!
Hi, I’m Ivy from China, I’m learning English now. Can we be friend that exchange language? Can you add my Skype: ivy1990122, or my Wechat:441020455
Hi Ivy ni hao
My name is Arry, I am in Australia.
I have been learning Chinese for a while.
It is good if we could help one another to learn the language..
YEAH RIGT
hi
MEH NAME JEFF!
Where in the story, does it say he “made a notch on the side of the boat”? Reference sentence 他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号.
Good spot – nowhere in the story does it say “On the side of the boat”. I just couldn’t find a way in English to explain what that sentence meant without adding that to the translation. Didn’t want anyone to think he’d tried to make a notch on the water.
I don’t think 记号 is a “notch” in this case but more of a “marker”. I think it can be translated that he tried to put a marker in the water where the sword was. In any case, he has to be pretty stupid to think a marker would stay in one place in the water without an anchor.
刻舟求剑
You haven’t written the expression except in pinyin. It does seem to suggest that the boat is being marked 刻舟。
John, Who have not written the expression 刻舟求剑? I don’t see this phrase in the story.
Oh I see. Ke Zhou Qiu is 刻舟求剑. Good point.
Yes. The story should have included the term 刻舟 in reference to the lost sword.
Thank you John for providing the characters for the chengyu.
Thank you John for providing the characters for the chengyu
Hello Kendra,
Thanks again for sharing the post!:)
I think your notes are really useful for Chinese learners!
Yang
This story was recently referred to by famous social commentator Yu Hua (餘華) in his op-ed piece for the New York Times regarding online censorship in China called “對不起，原文已經被刪除”.
You can read both the Mandarin and English versions of his interesting op-eds side by side here:
http://cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20140207/c07yu/dual/
Thanks for the amazing website Kendra!
GD
Could you clarify what the idiom in Chinese is? Is it a four-word idiom?
The idiom is “刻舟求剑” (Kè zhōu qiú jiàn), which character-by-character literally means “carve-boat-search-sword”, or as the iPhone Pleco app puts it:
“nick the boat to seek the sword” (make a notch on the side of a moving boat to locate where a sword dropped overboard)– an action made pointless by changed circumstances.
In Yu Hua’s New York Times editorial on censorship in China, he likens the Party’s invitation of criticism from the people and the subsequent censorship of public blog posts to this idiom; the result was that no real criticisms could be found in public forums.
If you don’t have the free Pleco app yet, I highly recommend it as it handles idioms quite well, even if you only know the pinyin (as in this case)!
Thank you GD for the explanation of the chengyu.
I love Chinese and I would like to learn more about Chinese .
ai xi
Good story and I bet the man felt bad but I think it would be a little better if they told a little bit of why he lovedhis sourd so much because I don’t see much of a cause if he loved it so much at the age of sourds and stuff so why dous he like it a lot is my question but after all it was a pretty good story
True, many fables leave us without backstory. In fact, the original scripts for old Chinese fables are famously short on words.
Well most fables are like that but you know I mean it could just be a little better with back story
tai hao le
duo xie lao shi
I thought this story was published before in books. – When I got this Chinese book, it had the same story like thst story.
I accidentally posted twice
I thought this story was published before in books. – When I got this Chinese book, it had the same story like that story.
I love your site. I have a question. I come here to practice often, and now I run my cursor over the characters and the definition isn’t showing up. Is it showing up from your end. I want to know if it is your website or my computer. Thanks
Otherwise this site is awesome it is helping me with my reading and character recognition skills a lot. Thanks again!!
Just one question: Why would he care for a sword? It seems precious but REALLY???
Chloe, In ancient times, a sword is precious. It’s like you dropping your iPhone into the river or something precious like your wedding ring. Hence you would jump into the river to retrieve it.
Well… I AIN’T GOT NO PHONE!!!!!!
AIN’T GOT NOTHING ELSE MORE PRECIOUS THAN A SAMSUNG TABLET! I CAN’T BRING IT TO ANY PLACE!!!!!!!!
Oh did I mention, I’m 9!
good
Today,try to find a wet which can show the short stories in chinese for my two girls. Accidently find this, very nice!
I am a bilingual chinese. And learning English now!
Hopefully can learn from you guys.
Thank you!
SAME FOR ME!!!!
I just found your website and it is great! For Chengyu it would be extremely helpful to include examples of usages. The meaning of the characters, the background story and how it is used in modern times are often different. I think this would make these types of posts more useful.
You’re probably right, there!
what mean is “这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。”
this website really inspire me..still wish to learn chinese though it seems like it is tough language bt i get inspired not to give up..THANKS
I am learning english as well can you teach me?
I would appreciate it a lot!
NOP!!
Very good info. Lucky me I recently found your site by chance (stumbleupon). I’ve bookmarked it for later!
This was a very good short book to learn objects and other things that are important. Thank you! Also, I am learning Mandarin.
Where it said 一不 was it supposed to be 一天 because the English says “One day” and 一不 just doesn’t seem right there (though I could be wrong I have only a couple years experience learning Chinese)
How would you use the idiom in a sentence/conversation?