Chinese Idiom Story - Chengyu

When we learn Chinese, we should not focus only on the words, grammars, etc. Language is cultural, so learning Chinese culture will help us improve our language skills in many ways. Chinese idioms are a big part of Chinese culture. Chinese idiom is a a group of words that can express a metaphor meaning through a story or historical fact.

An early bird catches the worm

In the skype Chinese lessons, we can learn many commonly-used Chinese idioms. Some of them are four-character idiom such as this one: 笨鸟先飞, slow birds fly first. This is a Chinese idiom which parents often console them with. The meaning of this metaphor is that even if a bird is slow, it can make up for its innate deficiency by being diligent and flying first thing in the morning.

While most Chinese idioms consist of 4 Chinese characters, some contain more characters, such as this one: 此地无银三百两(ci3 di4 wu2 yin2 san1 bai3 liang3), the literal meaning of which is “No 300 taels of silver buried here.“ This is a clumsy denial resulting in self-exposure. Or it means that a guilty person gives himself away by conspicuously protesting his innocence

No 300 taels of silver buried here.

The story is about a man called who foolishly thought he was very smart. He saved three hundred pieces of silver. On one hand, he was so happy to have earned so much silver. On the other hand, he was worried. He wanted to find a place to securely store the money. After thoroughly considering his options, he decided to dig a hole in the backyard. He buried the silver underground. Then he left a note on the ground “此地无银三百两.”