| Proverbs |
Annotation
And Connotations |
- Put
one person's hat on another's head.
(Chinese
original: 张冠李戴Chinese Pinyin: Zhang1 guan1 li3 dai4.)
|
- Confuse
one thing with another.
|
- One
who knows the limit knows true happiness.
(Chinese
original:  Chinese Pinyin: Zhi1 zu2 zhe3 chang2 le4.)
|
- Insatiability
is the source of unhappiness as one can never feel satisfied.
|
- Paper
can't wrap up a fire.
(Chinese
original:纸包不住火、Chinese Pinyin: Zhi3 bao1 bu2 zhu4 huo3.)
|
- How true:
it will burn it self out as truth will eventually reveals itself despite
cover ups.
|
- You
will never lose a battle if you know your own situation as well as that
of the enemy.
(Chinese
original: 知彼知己，百战不殆 Chinese Pinyin: Zhi1 ji3 zhi2 bi3,
bai3 zhan4 bu2 dai4.)
|
|
- A
governor may commit arson while the governed are not allowed to light
a lamp.
(Chinese
original:  Chinese Pinyin: Zhi3 xu3 zhou1guan1 fang4 huo3, bu4 xu3 bai3xing4 dian3
ding1.)
|
- One may
steal a horse while another may not look over the hedge. A bully may
do whatever he wants but won't bear the sight of others doing a fraction
of what he is doing.
|
- Point
at the mulberry and abuse the pagoda tree.
(Chinese
original: 指桑骂槐Chinese Pinyin: Zhi3 sang1 ma4 huai2.)
|
- This
is very subtle: the abuser tries to make his or her abuse felt by the
abused and yet hopes to get away with it by pretending to abuse someone
or something else. For instance, when a kid got into a fight with another
in the neighborhood, the parent of the kid intervened pretending to
scold her own child but the vituperation was actually meant for the
neighbor's child.
|
- Making
a thousand decisions, even the wise will make a mistake.
(Chinese
original:  Chinese Pinyin: Zhi4zhe3 qian1 lü4, bi4 you3 yi1 shi1.)
|
- Homer
sometimes nods.
|
- Ones
son is clever while the neighbor is suspicious.
(Chinese
original:  Chinese Pinyin: Zhi4 zi3 yi2 lin2.)
|
- Ones
judgment is marred by his emotions. The story behind this proverb goes
like this. A man of wealth found a wall of his house damaged by a heavy
rain. His son warned him against theft if he procrastinated its repair.
Meanwhile, a neighbor gave him the same warning. Sure enough, the house
was broken in that night. Despite the same warning, the man of wealth
thought of his son as intelligent while approached the neighbor as a
suspect of the crime.
|
- Only
when all contribute their firewood can they build up a strong fire.
(Chinese
original:  Chinese Pinyin: Zhong4ren2 shi2 chai2 huo3yan4 gao1.)
|
- Another
way of saying "United and we can stand strong."
|
- A
thief cries "Stop thief!"
(Chinese
original: 贼喊捉贼Chinese Pinyin: Zei2 han3 zhuo1 zei2.)
|
- This
is a ploy criminals often use to divert the attention of investigators.
|
- If
a son is uneducated, his dad is to blame.
(Chinese
original:  Chinese Pinyin: Zi3 bu2 jiao4, fu4 zhi1 guo4.)
|
Parents
are important in their kids' education. |
- Ones
own meat dishes are not as delicious as others vegetarian ones.
(Chinese
original:  Chinese Pinyin: Zi4 jia1 de rou4 bu4 xiang1,
ren2jia2 de cai4 you3 wei4.)
|
- One is
always ungrateful for one already has.
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