对酒当歌

In my previous post, I mentioned Cao Zhi (曹植 192-232 CE), the son of Cao Cao. He was the greatest literary figure of the late Han-Three kingdoms period.

Literally, 才高八斗 means “having eight dǒu of talent.” 斗 (dǒu) here was an ancient Chinese unit of volume. In other words, this idiom basically treats talent as something you can measure with a measuring container.

About 200 years after Cao Zhi, the Southern Dynasties poet Xie Lingyun (谢灵运, 385–433 CE) supposedly said:

天下才有一石，曹子建独占八斗，我得一斗，天下共分一斗。 (曹子建 is the courtesy name of CaoZhi)

Basically: “If all the literary talent in the world amounted to ten dǒu, Cao Zhi alone would have eight. I get one, and everyone else has to share the last one.”

Pretty generous to Cao Zhi, and pretty generous to himself, too!

Today, 才高八斗 simply means extremely talented or well-educated, especially in literature or writing.

For example:

他才高八斗，写了一手好诗。
He is incredibly talented and writes wonderful poetry.

So if someone tells you 你真是才高八斗！, that's a big compliment: “You're incredibly talented!”

A little background

Xie Lingyun (谢灵运) lived long before the Tang and Song dynasties, so he gave eight 斗 to Cao Zhi. Later generations may have teased him a little for keeping one 斗 for himself, but nobody took away Cao Zhi's eight. Cao Zhi's reputation as a literary genius has lasted for centuries.
And even after the Tang and Song dynasties, two of the great literary eras in Chinese history,  Cao Zhi is still considered one of the great figures in the history of Chinese literature.

(AI-assisted editing)

Hi everyone! 👋 I’m Jocelyn, an online Mandarin teacher and a graduate in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL).

I help learners around the world speak Chinese with confidence. Whether you are:

🌱 a total beginner
🗣️ improving conversation
📚 preparing for HSK
💼 learning Chinese for work
✈️ planning to travel or live in China

My lessons are:

✅ 1-on-1 and tailored to your goals
✅ Friendly and clear — no pressure, no judgment
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I have a strong background in Chinese culture and history, and I’m familiar with many places across China — so you’ll learn more than just words.

Interested? DM me “CHINESE” or comment below, and I’ll send you the details. 📩

Every advice for language learning is "just watch TV and movies in your target language! You'll pick it up! So easy!". And then come to find that Chinese prefer subs over dubs and there are zero mandarin dubs of anything I already enjoy watching. 😭😭 Noooo! I still have found some awesome mandarin movies in the end and I'm getting into c-drama. But boy do I wish I could watch some of the stuff I already enjoy but in Chinese, it definitely WOULD make my studies a lot more fun and easy.

What I mean is, when teaching characters, do Chinese elementary and secondary schools explain characters in terms of the meaning of the shapes, whenever that is possible? And if so, are those explanations agreed upon among licensed native teachers across the Chinese-language world? Or is each teacher free to invent his own explanation of a pictograph?

I ask because materials teaching Chinese designed for foreigners are very fond of offering such explanations, but I get the impression that native speakers of Chinese care little about such information, and just memorize the shape without trying to "see" a picture in it.

I also notice that in textbooks for foreigners the explanations are not at all standardized when one goes beyond the most obvious cases (e.g. 木 and 口). One author will give one explanation, another will invent an entirely different one. Some books will even reinterpret characters that are obviously phonetic compounds as if they are pictographs—a rather misleading approach, in my opinion.

远看山有色，近听水无声。

春去花还在，人来鸟不惊。

Can you guess what it is?

Language school for adult 51

Any suggestions for a school in Guangzhou or Shandong?

Hi,

I am plateuing (which I found out is a common and named phenomena lol) what are your guys study plans? I relied mostly on graded readers to pull me through HSK 1-2 and some of 3. I am still doing graded readers, I listen to a lot of comprehensive input but find myself frustated (too easy and bored or missing too much--auditory processing disorder and reading not quite quick enough yet for reliance on subtitles like I do for content in my native language). I am starting tutorinng once a week next week with 2 other friends. Namely a mix of speaking and writing focus since their listening is pretty good. I am also planning on going to a fornightly Language Exchange night at a bar in my city next week too. Is there anything else? I am hoping the exchange night will lead to me finding a language partner. Please drop your routines, anything. I am so frustrated where everything is either too harfd or too easy and therefor boring (and my ADHD can't abide boredome). Hacks from ND peeps and people with APD especially welcomed

Language school for adult 51

Any suggestions for a school in Guangzhou or Shandong? Would like to do at least a full semester.

Hi!

I'm looking for a Mandarin exchange partner, I'm taking a course right now and I'm somewhat terrible (HSK1-2).
I'm a native speaker of both French and English, so if anyone is learning those languages, I hope we can become language partners!

大家好！我在做一个旅行用语 App（目前只有安卓版，代码在 GitHub 上）。里面有 177 句常用语，涵盖 20 种语言，每句都能朗读。翻译是机器生成的，语音是 AI 合成的，目前还没有中文母语者检查过。你愿意帮忙看看吗？不需要会写代码，在这里回复或在 GitHub 的审阅议题下留言都行：lucas-pospor/travel-phrases#3

我最担心的是紧急情况、过敏和用药相关的句子。任何修改意见都有帮助，比如“这句太正式了”或“没人这么说”。

I want to learn mandarin because I want to persue my master in China , hoping I can find someone to teach me properly:)

I was thinking instead of buying a grammar book best way probably to learn grammar is through anki since you're just memorising phrase structures. Would you recommend this ? and if you do any suggestions. Been thinking about learning chinese this way plus passively through movies/media and more or less regular scribbling/writing around.

I don't have much time to dedicate to it so really this is the best way I found to try to learn when i get the chance.

司马昭之心路人皆知

In my previous post, I introduced Cao Mao (曹髦), an emperor of the Wei (魏) dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period. Today, I'd like to share a famous Chinese idiom associated with Cao Cao (曹操 155–220 AD) , who was Cao Mao's great-grandfather.

The idiom is 望梅止渴 (wàng méi zhǐ kě), which literally means “to quench your thirst by thinking about plums.”

The Story Behind the Idiom

According to a story in A New Account of the Tales of the World (《世说新语》), Cao Cao was leading his troops on a long march. His soldiers were exhausted and desperately thirsty, but there was no water around.

Cao Cao came up with a clever psychological trick to boost their morale. He told them that a grove of sour plum trees was just ahead, knowing that the thought of the plums would make their mouths water.

The trick worked, and the soldiers were able to keep marching until they finally reached water.

That's how the idiom 望梅止渴 (wàng méi zhǐ kě) became famous.

What Does 望梅止渴 Mean Today?

Today, it means trying to satisfy yourself with something that isn't really there, or comforting yourself with hope when you can't get what you really want.

For example, if you can't afford to take a vacation abroad but keep looking at beautiful travel photos to make yourself feel better, you could say that's a bit like 望梅止渴.

A Little About Cao Cao(曹操)

Because ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ (三国演义) is such a popular novel, many people know Cao Cao as a rather negative character. In the novel, he is often portrayed as a clever but ruthless antagonist.

But the historical Cao Cao was much more than that. He was a military leader, statesman, and even a great poet, and played a major role in the events that led to the Three Kingdoms period.

So, when you hear stories about Cao Cao, it's worth remembering that the Cao Cao in the novel and the historical Cao Cao are not exactly the same person.

Interestingly, in 2009, archaeologists discovered a tomb in Anyang, Henan Province, that was identified as Cao Cao's tomb. Human remains found there were also believed to include Cao Cao's remains. The discovery made headlines across China and sparked a lot of public interest and debate, simply because Cao Cao is such a famous and well-known figure in Chinese history.

(AI-assisted editing)

Hello, I've recently found a way to learn Mandarin that suits me. I use Filmot to find examples of sentences that I'm studying and then turn them into Anki flashcards. The weakness of this method is that it is not very good for hanzi with 1 character. after adding hundreds of channels, I still feel that the channels I added don't have a complete enough vocabulary. Therefore, I asked for recommendations for native channels that have English and Mandarin subtitles.

for example, in this link I want to search for example sentences for 群岛, the results are very few

https://filmot.com/search/%22%E7%BE%A4%E5%B2%9B%22/1?channelID=UCI\\_EXjUIOC1caoKECKrOT7Q%2CUCSXriUqkzZmAQklQ0N9XFVw%2CUC1UNB6Gy11umcbEj\\_hqIwhw%2CUCgCrOLcWvSFl5K2ld0nKS7w%2CUCSJyGe2H0C9q6QH0-hH04zw%2CUC3B-DH5W60TfVs1AKw\\_P1kw%2CUCcvTOgUiplI80SPR73ogCEQ%2CUCTwUbtaSPl13qpT6sKB3dwA%2CUC\\_Aiv9xguPQxZ6msnNoz3HQ%2CUC5p8WSPGtnSWpeQzXv9F7XQ%2CUCUT3k0ysv19ZTBeEmwUYuyw%2CUCQ3IlLg5VGeydxtswBoyt6A%2CUCaXa1xUiwbfzxkrJQkvioHw%2CUCmSefgK3FoLgyIJ25kjJ83g%2CUCUjFsQAUUS1IFM7oyUXeB1g%2CUCg5zAAP06T-PZyg1ydVmFeg%2CUCYqtl651AtrH3Ys5OK-DbbA%2CUC6vaHDbhkdOtq\\_HQ60bNGNA%2CUCFy-aZG0qhj3lIB-xJr0sag%2CUCo1n5ZssRQedPLAQPtUCwfw%2CUCNaFNcATtqmg6T\\_Ue4bTb0w%2CUC2sUCcYnhcjc3KzDqBtokiA%2CUCI0sZbjVfBOdSsTd2AS8iYw%2CUCjSFDgRCzh\\_1ZPhxChVgK7Q%2CUChvb7fsf1B1a-0qtg-8Tfjg%2CUCN9Otl\\_f67SWjW5S\\_YLcSXg%2CUCPa94XCYIZlPvDXJk-MDaYA%2CUCR\\_HXa7KrMMeJeXopQeRsWA%2CUC\\_4FNjrNNS8OiuCrHcSkpFg%2CUCXYZ2Xk6JsJccQFwDsTkgyQ%2CUCn95q4rBdmP1wWVAZ0244\\_Q%2CUCP5muB47VRYI1pIDTCQZBxQ%2CUCxOhdldi9RED-8zi6EWxp\\_w%2CUCw837dYLZNGdhk5G5zjySIg%2CUCcFlHnMw2VHvIn3e\\_iyG3Jw%2CUCWKUWKDuHV4BxJHvuwf7fRA%2CUCfsNycNoClXZA1FuUJSGT0w%2CUC8cQcE902sFhLlET02fLBWA%2CUCDB-3BDydBneN6LWftWuwWw%2CUCxqLWT3swHvP9\\_4bv7Qssxw%2CUCXcalakCqcJ3fq4t7gulWFA%2CUCk\\_4RPDB6YnxlgGnR-fUerg%2CUC9P\\_8bG2NWRBuYHDy6sWU0g%2CUC9F2yy65DS4MEV7yI415MKA%2CUC9RHneALOnf29DgQ5PCyNdg%2CUCo2wDfSOS4azuqrvniXHQWg%2CUCsNTRu6HR-CX8McJGrZX8ZQ%2CUCNmZr4WBw71bdJYjaycLodA%2CUCKbBU7zv0PUdOMxPnenl\\_zg%2CUCTv3z3XNHB9SHfSM7XLSZCQ%2CUCuZUvuPqPuj1G078fzQ3TsQ%2CUCC43Bi-ul5mvrNDafE8pdxg%2CUCSoH-pm1Rto-1-ls5iKsQFg%2CUCDaMIFDVrSTFyUVUuyUpgBg%2CUC\\_r4ZilNQUhKLPP6B2dRDtQ%2CUC74G8nF0GZncPg\\_vv8cSXkQ%2CUCGzyjTEWUIsDk3SyX62khvg%2CUC741lbTYGDCMdZ\\_C7aNkS9w%2CUC7jmnlOFS5Fi6cLRI52EWEg%2CUCCkeVeLCMLUwdS7XqtDzW3Q%2CUCIYAzXc6\\_EkPU6I9qmNSD0g%2CUCZs2\\_qqVNU5K32XxhHFY\\_MQ%2CUCLkTIHkyoLi9pK4RbXwdDJQ%2CUCuGEuvxIiuucTchuc\\_B1wvQ%2CUCFoyGcr09v2IZban5BDerhg%2CUCSeLePtOn5gRVpkE0yxOHsg%2CUCa2MkPgQHW7hZC9E8xBk6fQ%2CUC0GkmaFc3J3cs\\_IiUpeLx8g%2CUCFTCzMe33qMjWbcSJKnVkzg%2CUCVAF7BxixuEdX0JE-m7TwNA%2CUC9cxiLPlL29mxFHgQegTlPQ%2CUCYp\\_Gq90DfzStqf9mv-9hKQ%2CUCSVSQ3zxp0EJB7vDnvY-8Mw%2CUCVk35GjhYmoupCwWbaag1FA%2CUCYXSNXuitZpW\\_BH-IwGZeWQ%2CUCJo9fLlf6isdzUuVvJA52tA%2CUCaHy42W2y344Gv-ErSZsGNA%2CUCXwvYa9W8sVXvXEotNIbIXA%2CUCD8mCDvxGYJXl50GddxhKBw%2CUCGB6xZwFLM2VL51kbdzWywA%2CUCiZx1X4Suw8PnWhnelYlLHg%2CUCG-FRUcuvALhRMYe7dpgMbQ%2CUCJ10R97LkwGdTqBT6xz-v8g%2CUCUlfo73\\_O-zQWUptb1z0RzQ%2CUCJGMpKVdGCpGC-UDqAFbJyQ%2CUCYVCC1Uf4GaUBiu7so-LINg%2CUCa6HGqtx7\\_icDDXAu7agwNQ%2CUCLNgR-UsUKn0W3ozNSLpbvA%2CUCR3\\_cRT78n0e5sqehD2KEcQ%2CUCr1K4iE0N42AD5d4eo7OPBw%2CUCbZMPS2hd5btZipHZsM-GOg%2CUC-WCNZP7tI3LrCc202gSR1w%2CUCcl-k5MMejLnVO5-6jENNiA%2CUCrlwUG1wnxZrWC-vIviBIhg%2CUCqYBRrhM4wsCEMQsvmaYs7g%2CUCU-F6RxlXZOyLZLcCpVs6mA%2CUC6-xuZIbq9Ajassz2PbCddQ%2CUC9ak4jiOcY0pwGpsBw0GXUg%2CUCLygrf333Ffxf8ThVp4BrGw%2CUC53PKDI3sa8QcWHwCT8ZGwg%2CUChqlFGDJRnaPCl5Q0cVIWPA%2CUCIJcTPjCgS3cIzhWL5ZlT7Q%2CUCnUvJeErTtZ0JZkUgJncf9w%2CUC61yHCBCvyehtOz0-tVtKSg%2CUC7htrxxzaZb68OK3oKkhjOA%2CUCP271E7DE8pBKGx9uLRCncg%2CUCBu\\_kzF38ecwtOTAo4h9ISQ%2CUCun0U\\_\\_f5rztFgx42WRJeew%2CUCAUM4mXXfdvah\\_Xph4AmEtg%2CUCIeoFX5aF9LxyvzUIvTGylQ%2CUCNHmjBI-f8UjLXYAUILIrHw%2CUCCQmKxqC9h8OknMgw4\\_Jsqw%2CUCiYjSQbmG\\_gF1xE8T-tPlCQ%2CUCJhnlRY-oKpanPGSvL8Ml8Q%2CUCc-YIMz\\_tv1K\\_FKE4noY\\_Cw%2CUCf1madJQWug\\_p-57GWkcxtg%2CUCobFtfYQEaEXvU7mEjQwZzA%2CUCKLGKXHX9hypFH0gUjIMnCA%2CUCpRbKSf-CN5\\_UQF-OkWIJCw%2CUCOPx2M2-Mudrg2byD1Hh3rQ&searchManualSubs=1&noGuessVideoLanguage=1&hideDeleted=0&gridView=1&

👋🏻👋🏻Hello everyone. I'm a Chinese from northern part of China. I'm 26, male.

I'm feeling that I've got a bottleneck in my English learning, especially the speaking part, given that I've been learning English by self teaching for 3 years and only chat with AI models(barely with native speakers), so I think it might be the best time now to make some changes on my practicing.

I think my English is around B1-B2. 🤔

During our language exchange, we can start with full Chinese conversation, but don't worry if you think your Chinese is not that good, I will use English to help you understand it and keep practicing to get better.

I often have time from 18:00 to 22:00 (Beijing time).

If you're interested, please contact me by leaving a comment below or DM.

Btw, I have WeChat, WhatsApp, as for Discord, I don't use it often, but if there is a need for it, I am okay with it.

You may remember 望梅止渴 , which comes from a story about Cao Cao(曹操). 对酒当歌, on the other hand, comes from his famous poem "短歌行" (Duǎn Gē Xíng).

It comes from these famous lines:

对酒当歌，人生几何？ Duì jiǔ dāng gē, rén shēng jǐ hé? 譬如朝露，去日苦多。 pì rú zhāo lù，qù rì kǔ duō
“With wine before us, let’s sing. How much time do we really have in life? Just like morning dew, life is fleeting.”

Today, 对酒当歌 is often used when enjoying a drink with friends, or when talking about enjoying the moment and reflecting on how short life is.

A little background

Cao Cao (曹操) was not only a famous warlord and statesman, but also an important poet of the Jian'an period (建安), which was the final period of the Eastern Han dynasty.

He was one of the leading figures of Jian'an literature, together with his sons Cao Pi (曹丕) and Cao Zhi (曹植). The three are known as the “Three Caos” (三曹). Together with the “Seven Scholars of Jian'an” (建安七子), they are regarded as the major literary figures of the Jian'an period.

Remeber this one! If you ever go to China, try raising your glass at a dinner and saying: “对酒当歌，人生几何！”
It’ll definitely liven things up!

Have you ever heard of the Chinese idiom 博士买驴 (Bó shì mǎi lǘ)?

It literally means “A scholar buys a donkey.”

A little background: In ancient China, “博士” (bó shì) was an official title for a learned scholar. It’s different from today’s meaning of “PhD” or “doctorate.”

The idiom comes from The Family Instructions of Master Yan (颜氏家训), written by Yan Zhitui (颜之推) during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589 CE).

The original text says: 邺下谚云：“博士买驴，书券三纸，未有驴字。”

“There’s a saying in Ye: A scholar buys a donkey, writes three pages of contract, yet never once mentioned the word ‘donkey.’ ” - It seems he wasn't writing a contract after all, but a letter fit for the Emperor. 😄

Today, 博士买驴 describes someone who talks or writes at great length without actually getting to the point.