Hello everyone, welcome to historically accurate.
If you want to learn Chinese well
then you can’t avoid learning Cheng Yu
if you don’t want to learn Chinese
you would probably still be interested in the stories behind Cheng Yu
So what is a Cheng Yu
Simply put, a Cheng Yu is an idiom
It’s a set phrase that expresses a specific meaning
For example, when I say Achilles' heel
you know that it refers to a person’s fatal weakness and
can immediately recall the story behind this idiom.
In Chinese, Cheng Yu almost always consist of 4 characters
But there are also Cheng Yu consisting of 3 characters
5 characters or other numbers of characters
Cheng Yu usually come from a historical story or an ancient classic
So every time you learn a Cheng Yu
you learn more about Chinese culture.
In today’s episode
I will talk about some Cheng Yu that originated in the Three Kingdoms period
Let’s get started!
The first Cheng Yu I want to talk about is “Wang Mei Zhi Ke”
It comes from a story of Cao Cao
Emperor Wu of Wei in the Three Kingdoms period.
In 196 AD
Cao Cao lost his way while leading an army to attack Zhang Xiu
and couldn’t find water anywhere within dozens of miles
It was a hot day and the blazing sun made the soldiers dizzy and sweaty
However, they had run out of water
Seeing that the soldiers could no longer hold on
Cao Cao was extremely anxious.
He climbed up a nearby hill and looked around but couldn’t see
anything except for some trees
Suddenly, he came up with an idea
He pointed his horse whip into the distance and said to the soldiers
“Look, there are many plum trees not far ahead!” Hearing the word “plum”
the soldiers began to salivate and felt less thirsty and their spirits were lifted.
In the end, Cao Cao’s army held out
found water and got out of the predicament.
Since then
the Cheng Yu “Wang Mei Zhi Ke” has been used to
describe the situation where
one has to console oneself with illusions
because one’s desire can’t be achieved
“Wang” means “look”, “Mei” means “plum”
“Zhi” means “quench”, “Ke” means “thirst”
So these 4 characters together means “to quench thirst by looking at plums”
Isn’t it quite easy to remember?
The second Cheng Yu I want to talk about is “Dan Dao Fu Hui”
It comes from a story in the novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”.
In 215 AD, after Liu Bei had taken over Yi Province
Sun Quan sent people to ask Liu Bei to return the part of Jing Province
that he had previously borrowed
Liu Bei always found excuses to not return it
Sun Quan got extremely angry and
asked his commander Lu Su what to do
Lu Su said, “Jing Province is guarded by Guan Yu
We only need to invite Quan Yu to our banquet to
talk about the return of Jing Province
If Guan Yu doesn’t agree
our armed soldiers hiding outside our barrack
can swarm in to kill Guan Yu
If Guan Yu declines our invitation
then we will directly lead the army to attack Guan Yu.”
Sun Quan was quite pleased with this plan and asked Lu Su to
immediately invite Guan Yu to “negotiate”.
Guan Yu certainly knew that the
negotiation process would be very dangerous
but he had a plan to deal with it
He only brought his Green Dragon Crescent Blade
and a dozen or so subordinates
including Zhou Cang to gladly attend the banquet.
During the banquet
Lu Su kept bringing up the topic of returning Jing Province
but Guan Yu still found excuses to prevaricate
Zhou Cang couldn’t help but said
“All the land in the world is for virtuous people
Why do you think only you, Eastern Wu
should exclusively own it?” Seeing the opportunity
Guan Yu pretended to scold Zhou Cang angrily
“This is an important national affair, how dare you talk about it casually
Leave now!” Zhou Cang got the hint and left the banquet
came to the riverside and waved a red flag
Guan Yu’s son Guan Ping had led
a dozen or so speed boats to hide on the river
Seeing the red flag, Guan Ping immediately came to Zhou Cang.
Meanwhile in the banquet
Guan Yu held his Green Dragon Crescent Blade in one hand
and held Lu Su in the other hand
He pretended to be drunk and said to Lu Su
“You invited me to this banquet today
but I am drunk now
So let’s not talk about Jing Province in case
I injure you with my blade by accident
We can take our time and talk about it later when you come to Jing Province.”
While talking, he took Lu Su to the riverside
Lu Su was scared out of his wits and had to follow Guan Yu
The armed soldiers hiding outside the barrack didn’t dare to act rashly.
In the end, Guan Yu left Eastern Wu safely.
Since then
“Dan Dao Fu Hui” has been used to describe the situation where
one takes a risk to attend an opponent’s meeting and
to praise the resourcefulness and courage of that person
“Dan Dao” literally means “a blade”
“Fu Hui” means “to attend a meeting”
And the term “Dan Dao” is also used in
soccer games to describe the situation where
an attacker breaks through the defence and faces the opponent’s goal alone
one-on-one with the opposing goalkeeper
So if you watch a soccer game with Chinese commentary
and hear the word “Dan Dao”
you know that it actually comes from the Cheng Yu “Dan Dao Fu Hui”.
However, this story is from the novel
The records in historical books are quite different
Some records say that Lu Su and Guan Yu each prepared themselves
and then the two met alone at an intermediate point
other records say that Lu Su went to Jing Province alone
to negotiate with Guan Yu
In any case, Lu Su never wanted to kill Guan Yu in history
On the contrary, he was a staunch defender of the Sun-Liu alliance.
Next, I will talk about the third Cheng Yu,“Le Bu Si Shu”.
In November 263 AD
Wei conquered Shu with the efforts of
its generals Deng Ai and Zhong Hui
The emperor of Shu --- Liu Bei’s son, Liu Shan, was escorted to Wei
At this time, the person in charge of Wei was
no longer a descendant of Cao Cao
but Sima Zhao, the son of Sima Yi
On one occasion
Sima Zhao hosted a banquet for Liu Shan and the former ministers of Shu
Songs and dances of Shu were performed during the banquet
The former ministers of Shu were reminded of their homeland
and all covered their faces and wept
While Liu Shan watched the performances with relish
So Sima Zhao asked Liu Shan
“Do you still miss Shu?” Liu Shan replied
“I am very happy here and don’t miss Shu.”
One of the former Shu ministers, Xi Zheng
said to Liu Shan when they were both in the bathroom
“The next time Sima Zhao asks you if you miss Shu
you should first look up at the palace
then close your eyes for a while
and finally open your eyes and say seriously
“The tombs of my ancestors are far away in Shu and
there is not a day that passes where I don’t miss them.” In this way
Sima Zhao will let you return to Shu.”
Liu Shan listened carefully and remembered Xi Zheng’s words.
Sure enough
Sima Zhao asked Liu Shan this question again
after Liu Shan returned to the banquet
Liu Shan did exactly what Xi Zheng had told him to do
Hearing Liu Shan’s response
Sima Zhao laughed and asked
“Why does this sound like what Xi Zheng would say?”
Liu Shan was surprised and asked
“How did you know that?”
Sima Zhao and other Wei ministers all laughed out loud and
thought that Liu Shan was a simple person with no scheming
After that, Liu Shan lived the rest of his life peacefully in Luo Yang.
From then on, “Le Bu Si Shu” was used to describe a person who
adapts to a new environment quickly and doesn’t miss the past
“Le” means “be happy” and “Bu Si Shu” means “not missing Shu”.
In my previous episodes
when I talked about historical stories
I also briefly mentioned some Cheng Yu
such as “Guo Wu Guan Zhan Liu Jiang”
(crossing five passes and slaying six generals)
“Po Fu Chen Zhou” (breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats)
“Zuo Bi Shang Guan” (sitting on the wall and watching), etc
Today’s episode is the first episode that I focus on Cheng Yu themselves
If you enjoy this episode
please like or leave your comments down below and
I will make more videos about Cheng Yu in the future
Also, if you know any idioms in your own languages that
have meanings similar to “Wang Mei Zhi Ke”
“Dan Dao Fu Hui” or “Le Bu Si Shu”
please let me know in the comment section
I am eager to learn more about them!
Well, that's it for this episode
See you next time!