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Four-character idioms 100
100
phrases
Learning
10
举一反三 - raise one, come back with three - is Confucius on teaching: a student worth teaching infers the other three corners from one. 温故知新 - warm up the old to know the new - is from the same source, and both are still used about ordinary study today.
Doing a job properly
10
功亏一篑 - the mound falls short by one basket of earth - is about quitting just before completion, and the image is a man building a hill who stops one load early. 水到渠成 - when the water arrives the channel forms - is its opposite: do the work and the result follows.
What someone is like
10
深藏不露 - hidden deep, not shown - and 锋芒毕露 - every point fully exposed - are a matched pair describing opposite temperaments, and Chinese culture has traditionally preferred the first. 表里如一 praises someone whose inside and outside match.
Between people
10
求同存异 - seek common ground while keeping differences - was Zhou Enlai's formula at Bandung in 1955 and is now used about any negotiation, including domestic ones. 将心比心 - measure the heart against the heart - is the Chinese formulation of empathy.
Time and change
10
昙花一现 - the night-blooming cereus appears once - describes something brilliant and brief, and the flower it names really does open for a single night. 恍如隔世 - as if a lifetime apart - is what you say when a familiar place has changed beyond recognition.
Hard times
10
山穷水尽 - mountains exhausted, waters ended - and 柳暗花明 - willows dark, flowers bright - are the two halves of a Lu You couplet about thinking there is no road left and then finding a village. Learn them as a pair; that is how they are used.
Ways of putting things
10
言简意赅 - words few, meaning complete - is the standard by which Chinese prose is judged, and it is the opposite of 滔滔不绝, talking on and on like a flood. 语重心长 describes advice given with weight and long feeling, usually by someone older.
Judgement
10
未雨绸缪 - bind the window before the rain - is preparation from the Book of Songs, where a bird repairs its nest before the storm. 因小失大 - lose the big for the small - and 得不偿失 - the gain does not cover the loss - are the two ways to name a false economy.
Scale and degree
10
人山人海 - people mountains, people seas - is the phrase for a crowd, and anyone who has seen a Chinese railway station at New Year knows it is not hyperbole. 屈指可数 - countable by bending fingers - means very few, and pairs neatly against 数不胜数.
How it turns out
10
塞翁失马 - the old man of the frontier loses his horse - is the shortest form of a parable about not knowing whether luck is good or bad, and Chinese speakers invoke the first four characters alone. 水落石出 - the water drops and the stones appear - means the truth will surface.
Related categories
Softening & hinting 100
Conversation flow 100
Set phrases & idioms 100
Telling a story 100
Arguing a case 100
Grumbling 100
Joking and irony 100
Formal occasions 100
中文