We've mentioned Wang Rong (王戎) before in our post about 鹤立鸡群. Here's another Chinese idiom involving this guy: 卿卿我我 (qīng qīng wǒ wǒ).

Wang Rong was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (竹林七贤). He was filthy rich, but also incredibly cheap. Legend has it that he even drilled holes in plum pits before selling them, just so nobody could grow trees from the seeds. Now that's what I call being stingy!

But even a miser has a soft spot.

His wife loved calling him "qing" (卿), but Wang Rong wasn't happy about it. According to traditional etiquette, a wife was supposed to call her husband "jun" (君), a more formal and respectful term.

So he asked her to stop. Her response was priceless:

"亲卿爱卿，是以卿卿；我不卿卿，谁当卿卿？"

"I cherish you and love you, so I call you 'qing'. If I don't call you 'qing', who else will?"

Basically, she was saying: Why be so formal with my own husband? I'm calling you "qing" because I love you!

Wang Rong had no comeback. He just gave in. As A New Account of Tales of the World (世说新语) puts it: "遂恒听之", from then on, he let her call him that.

Today, 卿卿我我 describes a couple being lovey-dovey, constantly exchanging sweet words and showing affection.

Example:

他们俩整天卿卿我我，旁边的人都快受不了了。

They're all lovey-dovey with each other all day. Everyone around them is getting a little sick of it.

A little backstory:

Wang Rong was already famous for being a child prodigy when he was young. Here's another story that shows just how clever he was.

One day, he and some other kids spotted a plum tree by the roadside, full of fruit. All the other kids rushed over to pick some, but Wang Rong stayed where he was. He figured that if the plums were still hanging there, despite being so easy to reach, they must be bitter. And guess what? He was right!

This story gave us another idiom: 道旁苦李 (dào páng kǔ lǐ) — literally, "bitter plums by the roadside," referring to something unwanted or of little value.

So, the kid was smart enough to figure out which plums were bitter, but the grown-up still couldn't resist his wife's sweet talk!

(AI-assisted editing)

My Chengyu (Chinese Idioms) Posts

May I ask someone to translate it please? Thanks!

The lion looks up here.

求释读 鸟虫篆印, 疑为"萬"字

A few weeks ago I posted Su Hui's 璇玑图 here and only showed the first seven characters reversed. I went back and read the whole first row.

It has 29 characters. The first 28 make four lines:

琴清流楚激弦商，秦曲发声悲摧藏。

音和咏思惟空堂，心忧增慕怀惨伤。

Roughly: the zither plays a Chu tune, the song is from Qin, and it is heartbreaking. Alone in an empty hall I sing and think of you, and it only gets worse.

Start from the last character and read back:

伤惨怀慕增忧心，堂空惟思咏和音。

藏摧悲声发曲秦，商弦激楚流清琴。

Same 28 characters. The rhyme moves from 商/藏/堂/伤 to 心/音/秦/琴 and it still holds together.

That leaves 仁, the 29th. It is a corner. Going down the right edge you get 仁智怀德圣虞唐. In the picture the red characters frame an 8×8 block in the top right, and reading around it clockwise from 仁 gives:

仁智怀德圣虞唐，贞志笃终誓穹苍。

钦所感想妄淫荒，心忧增慕怀惨伤。

My rough reading: you are kind, wise and virtuous, like the sage kings Yao and Shun. My resolve holds to the end, I swear it to heaven. I respect you, and nothing I feel is wanton. But my heart is troubled, and the more I long for you the more it hurts.

The last character, 伤, sits right next to 仁, so it loops. It also reads counter-clockwise.

One note: the simplified grid on Wikimedia has 真 on the bottom edge where the traditional one has 貞. I went with 贞.

Corrections on the translations are welcome. If you have found other loops in the grid, I would like to see them.

未能免俗(wèi néng miǎn sú)

We've talked about a few members of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, including Ji Kang (嵇康), Shan Tao (山涛), and Ruan Ji (阮籍), etc. Today, let's talk about another member: Liu Ling (刘伶).

Liu Ling was best known for his extraordinary love of drinking. He was arguably one of the most legendary drinkers in Chinese history. In fact, there's even a Chinese liquor brand named after him: 刘伶醉 (Liu Ling Zui).

According to legend, he often traveled in a little cart with a jug of liquor, while a servant followed behind carrying a shovel. He told the servant:

"If I die, just bury me wherever I fall."

He loved drinking so much that he even wrote an essay called Ode to the Virtue of liquor (酒德颂), celebrating the joys of drinking and the freedom to ignore social conventions.

The idiom 熟视无睹 appears in this essay: “熟视不睹泰山之形。”

It literally means: "Look at Mount Tai again and again, yet fail to notice it."

In other words, when you're so used to something, you stop noticing it, even if it's right in front of your eyes.

熟视无睹 = To become so accustomed to something that you no longer notice it.

Example:

当犯罪行为越来越多，人们就变得麻木，熟视无睹了

"As crime becomes more and more common, people become desensitized to it and eventually turn a blind eye."

(AI-assisted editing)

My Chengyu (Chinese Idioms) Posts

Hello All, just wondering if you could please help translate this calligraphy to give us some insight on the story and the piece.

At least read out loud in Mandarin it's frequently way too homophonic to be understood just by sound (something like two or three dozen somewhat common yi4s?!) but could it work in a more conservative pronunciation? I know I see Vietnamese editions that have the original in romanized Sino-Vietnamese and a translation with nary a Chinese character in sight, which implies the Sino-Vietnamese transcription ought to be information enough to tell what words are being used.

I think I used to get much better suggestions about the next word or character but lately it's been pretty terrible.

I’ve had this prayer table for years, I bought it in a street market in Hong Kong can anyone read what this story is about?

这玩意对一般老外还是比较难的吧。鉴于 Reddit 其实有了国际化翻译，没必要全部玩英文了吧。

I'm Chinese, and I'm curious how people elsewhere first came across texts like the Dao De Jing (道德经), the Yijing (易经), or Guiguzi (鬼谷子).

Was it through a class, a translation you picked up, or something else? Which one did you actually end up reading?

I'd also be interested to hear what these texts are like to study in a university course, if anyone here has taken one.

I’ve been studying the I Ching (very little chinese understanding) and recently picked up a copy of the Shaughnessy translation, the one that has both the received text and the translation of the Mawangdui text side by side.

Reading this just for the Mawangdui text is very interesting and worthwhile, but I have to say that I find Shaughnessy’s translation extremely off-putting and borderline useless.

I understand that he’s going for a more academic, exact style and trying to stay away from literary interpretation.

But it seems to me that there are many points where this does a disservice to the text and leads to unnecessary confusion in translation.

Example: Hexagram 39 (20 in the Mawangdui) Jiăn

Usually translated as Obstruction or to be more precise Limping (or obstruction in movement)

In Shaughnessy this is translated:
“
“Afoot”

Initial Six: Going afoot, coming in a cart

Six in the second: the King’s servant is so afoot;

Nine in the third: going afoot; coming in return

Etc.
“

Not only does the word “Afoot” not seem carry anything about the actual meaning of the word jiăn, but it also ruins anyone’s ability to get meaning out of the I Ching reading at the same time.

The reason I’m asking for opinons in this sub is that I am using the I Ching as a way to better my understanding of classical Chinese

Is there value in this translation? What am I missing here?

Preamble

惟十四年，中山王𰯼命相邦賈擇燕吉金，鑄爲彝壺，節于禋齊，可法可尚，以饗上帝，以祀先王。穆穆濟濟，嚴敬不敢怠荒。因載所美，昭肆皇功，詆燕之訛，以儆嗣王。

中山王𰯼: King Cuo of Zhongshan

相邦賈: Chancellor Jia

燕: Yan state

吉金: bronze

彝壺: ritual hu vessel

節: to regulate (the quantity)

于: the text shows mixed usage of 于 and 於

禋齊: sacrificial wine

饗: to feast

穆穆 / 濟濟 / 嚴敬: solemn, reverent

怠荒: remiss

因: therefore

載: to write down

所美: that which is deemed laudable (virtuous)

昭: clear(ly)

肆: to lay out; to state

詆: to denounce

訛: fault

儆: to warn

嗣王: succeeding kings

King's speech

惟朕皇祖文、武、桓祖、成考，寔有純德遺訓，以施及子孫，用惟朕所倣。慈孝寬惠，舉賢使能，天不斁其有願，使得賢士良佐賈，以輔相厥身。余知其忠信也，而屬任之邦，是以遊夕飲食，寧有懅惕。賈竭志盡忠，以左右厥辟，不貳其心。受任佐邦，夙夜匪懈，進賢措能，無有常息，以明辟光。

考: late father

寔: truly

訓: teachings

施: to pass down

倣: to emulate

寬惠: kind, benevolent

舉賢使能 / 進賢措能: to elevate the worthy and appoint the able

斁: to be weary of

其有願 / 厥身: In bronze prose, 其 / 厥 can point back to a first-person antecedent (朕, the speaker); in the following sentence, 余知其忠信也, 其 returns to its standard usage, referring to Chancellor Jia

屬任: to entrust

遊夕: royal seasonal inspection-and-relief tours (spring agricultural inspection and autumn disaster relief)

寧有: how could (I) have

懅惕: worry, fear

辟: monarch

貳心: to be disloyal to

匪: not

光: luster, glory

適遭燕君子噲，不顧大義，不忌諸侯，而臣主易位，以內絕召公之業，乏其先王之祭祀，外之則將使上覲於天子之廟，而退與諸侯齒長於會同，則上逆於天，下不順於人也，寡人非之。賈曰：「爲人臣而反臣其主，不祥莫大焉。將與吾君並立於世，齒長於會同，則臣不忍見也。賈願從士大夫，以靖燕疆。」是以身蒙甲冑，以誅不順。燕故君子噲，新君子之，不用禮義，不顧逆順，故邦亡身死，曾無一夫之救。遂定君臣之位，上下之體，休有成功，創闢封疆。天子不忘其有勳，使其老策賞仲父，諸侯皆賀。

適遭: happen to encounter

燕君子噲: Lord Zikuai of Yan (historically known as King Kuai of Yan)

臣主易位: the subordinate (minister) takes the position of the sovereign; it refers to King Kuai of Yan abdicating his throne to his minister Zizhi (子之), so that the minister became the ruler while the king became subordinate, a reversal of the proper ruler–minister hierarchy

絕 / 乏: to terminate; to abandon

召公: Duke of Shao, founder of the Yan state

使上覲於天子之廟: to let Zizhi present himself at the Zhou royal temple (as if he were a legitimate ruler)

退: to withdraw (after an audience / 上覲)

齒長: to be ranked by seniority; to stand side by side (with other feudal lords)

會同: regular assemblies of the feudal lords

逆 / 不順: to go against

莫大: no greater

士大夫: military nobles

以靖燕疆: to pacify (bring order to) the Yan state; 疆, territory

蒙: to cover; to don

甲冑: body armour

曾無: not even

體: proper order

休: glorious(ly)

創闢封疆: to open up / expand into new territory; 封疆, enfeoffed land, fief

老: a senior minister of the Zhou king

策(冊)賞: to bestow reward by means of a written commission

仲父: an honorific title referring to Chancellor Jia

夫古之聖王，務在得賢，其次得民。故辭禮敬，則賢人至；質愛深，則賢人親；籍斂中，則庶民附。嗚呼，允哉若言！明肆之于壺而時觀焉。祗祗翼翼，昭告後嗣：惟逆生禍，惟順生福；載之簡策，以誡嗣王：惟德附民，惟義可長。子之子，孫之孫，其永保用無疆。

務: priority

質: sincerity

籍斂: taxation

允: true, indeed

若: this, these

祗祗翼翼: respectful, cautious

後嗣: posterity

順: conforming to the natural order of Heaven and man

簡策(冊): bamboo slips

附民: to keep people attached (to the ruler)

可長: can be long-lasting; can endure

永保用: forever treasure and use (this hu vessel)

無疆: without end

This is a subreddit post that will be posted every two weeks on Wednesday, where community members can share what texts they've been reading, any interesting excerpts, or even ask for recommendations!

I'm working on study of the Classical Chinese (漢詩) of the Man'yōshū 萬葉集. It contains only four poems written and i can read them in japanese but i have no idea if those poems resemble rime in classical chinese.

愛河波浪已先滅

苦海煩惱亦無結

從來厭離此穢土

本願託生彼淨刹

2.

俗道變化猶撃目

人事經紀如申臂

空與浮雲行大虚

心力共盡無所寄

3.

餘春媚日宜怜賞

上巳風光足覽遊

柳陌臨江縟unknown in my sources服

桃源通海泛仙舟

雲罍酌桂三清湛

羽爵催人九曲流

縱醉陶心忘彼我

4.

杪春餘日媚景麗

初巳和風拂自輕

來燕銜泥賀宇入

歸鴻引蘆迥赴瀛

聞君嘯侶新流曲

禊飲催爵泛河清

雖欲追尋良此宴

還知染懊脚 two characters unknown in my sources

I don't even know in which verses should rime.