Chinese proverbs(中国谚语Zhōngguó yànyǔ) can be split into chengyu (accepted phrases), yanyu (familiar sayings), suyu (popular sayings), and xiehouyu (two-part allegorical sayings). Unique to the Chinese language, xiehouyu proverbs are vivid with images and dramatic results. based on puns of homophonic words, the majority of xiehouyu(歇后语xiēhòuyǔ) is simply not translatable(capable of being put into another form or style or language). Therefore only a few such sayings will be included in this small sample of the unfathomable(if you describe something as unfathomable, you mean that it cannot be understood or explained, usually because it is very strange or complicated) reservoir of Chinese proverbs.

Some proverbs are literary, that is, from a written source. Others originated among families, street vendors, and other commoners. If a proverb is distinct from others with good phrasing it can be termed as an aphorism. When a proverb is used to describe a rule of conduct, it can be termed as a maxim. Proverbs were generally derived from different cultures and human experience that came from seniors in the society who knew how a situation and how should it be dealt with.

Because many of the most popular Chinese proverbs express distilled wisdom, they are as much in use today as when they were first coined. To help strangers to China better understand the implicit as well as the explicit meanings of Chinese proverbs. Chinese proverbs come from the Latin word proverbium. It is a phrase that has a lot of meaning metaphorically. So if you want to tell somebody do not sit idle else it may work against you, you can say, "empty mind is a devils workshop" which means if you sit idle you will end up thinking and doing evil things.

The proverb is cream of a language, they reflect the relationship between language and culture, people’ common social activities in many aspects similar, so English and Chinese proverb have similarities. Because of the culture diffenence, English and Chinese proverbs have difference in their detailed contents. English and Chinese proverb has similar origin and similar linguistic characters. They both originate from folk life.mythology(a group of myths, especially all the myths from a particular country, religion, or culture), literary works and from other language. Difference between English and Chinese proverb also exist, that is different geography, different history customs, different value concept and diffenent religion.