{"id":8476,"date":"2019-10-27T01:36:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T01:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-reading\/story-behind-the-idiom-ke-zhou-qiu-jian\/"},"modified":"2019-10-27T01:36:39","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T01:36:39","slug":"story-behind-the-idiom-ke-zhou-qiu-jian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/fr\/story-behind-the-idiom-ke-zhou-qiu-jian\/","title":{"rendered":"Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian"},"content":{"rendered":"
Yang over at Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I’ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately – everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading chéngy\u01d4 (\u6210\u8bed idiom) stories, because you’ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of “long long ago, far far away” fable.<\/p>\n

Learn to Read Mandarin Free: Mandarin Reading EssaysIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, \u4ece\u524d cóngqián, means “a long time ago”, your classic storybook beginning.<\/p>\n

The second, \u695a\u56fd\u4eba ch\u01d4guórén, means “a man from the State of Chu“. The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictio<\/em>nal division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you’ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times. Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: “China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise co<\/em>ntrol over more than their own fiefs.” Anyhoo, the third word is \u5b9d\u5251 b\u01ceojiàn, which means “a double-edged sword”. How fable-y is that, huh?<\/p>\n

I’d also like to draw your attention to the word \u79fb\u52a8 yìdòng, meaning “to be moving” or “mobile”. This word is quite common – it’s used to refer to people who move often, and also to “mobile” pho<\/em>nes (the cell provider “China Mobile” has this in their Chinese name: \u4e2d\u56fd\u79fb\u52a8).<\/p>\n

Okay, let’s do this. And thanks again to Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backl<\/em>inks. <\/p>\n

\u4ece\u524d\u6709\u4e00\u4f4d\u695a\u56fd\u4eba, \u4ed6\u975e\u5e38\u7231\u60dc\u4ed6\u7684\u5b9d\u5251\u3002\u6709\u4e00\u5929\uff0c\u4ed6\u6b63\u5750\u5728\u8239\u4e0a\u51c6\u5907\u8fc7\u6cb3\uff0c\u4e00\u4e0d\u5c0f\u5fc3\u4ed6\u5c31\u628a\u5b9d\u5251\u6389\u8fdb\u4e86\u6cb3\u91cc\u3002\u4ed6\u9a6c\u4e0a\u5728\u5b9d\u5251\u6389\u843d\u7684\u5730\u65b9\u4f5c\u4e86\u8bb0\u53f7\u3002\u5f53\u4ed6\u5230\u8fbe\u5bf9\u5cb8\u7684\u65f6\u5019\uff0c\u4ed6\u6cbf\u7740\u8bb0\u53f7\u8df3\u8fdb\u6cb3\u91cc\u53bb\u627e\u4ed6\u7684\u5b9d\u5251\u3002\u5f53\u7136\uff0c\u4ed6\u5df2\u7ecf\u627e\u4e0d\u5230\u4e86\u3002<\/p>\n

\u5b9d\u5251\u5df2\u7ecf\u4e0d\u5728\u539f\u6765\u6389\u843d\u7684\u5730\u65b9\u56e0\u4e3a\u8239\u548c\u6c34\u90fd\u5728\u79fb\u52a8\u3002\u8fd9\u4e2a\u6545\u4e8b\u5f62\u5bb9\u53ea\u4f1a\u523b\u677f\u5730\u9075\u5b88\u89c4\u5219\uff0c\u4e0d\u61c2\u53d8\u901a\u7684\u4eba\u3002
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Long ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place wher his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn’t able to find it.<\/p>\n

The sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without co<\/em>nsidering a changing enviro<\/em>nment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances].
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