Famous Chinese Proverbs About Women

Here are some Chinese proverbs about women and some are like western quotes:

Beauty is the wisdom of women


No man is a hero to his woman.


Beauty is the wisdom of women. Wisdom is the beauty of men.


A young woman with an old man is really someone else’s woman.


A patient woman can roast an ox with a lantern.


A curious woman is capable of turning around the rainbow just to see what is on the other side.


The virtue of a woman does not go deep but her passion knows no limit.


The tongue of a woman is the sword that is never allowed to rust.


The spirit of women is made of quicksilver; their heart of wax.

The most highly praised woman is the one about whom no one speaks.


The first decision of a woman is the most intelligent and the last decision most dangerous.


The fangs of the green snake and the sting of a wasp don’t really make poison – that is only to be found in a woman’s heart.


The advice of a clever woman can ruin a strong town.


Never does a woman lie in a more cunning way than when she tells the truth to someone who doesn’t believe her.


It’s not the beauty of a woman that blinds the man, the man blinds himself.


Good behavior is a virtue for the man – bad behavior is the virtue of a woman.


When a woman talks to you, smile but do not listen.


When a man is crazy about a woman only she can cure him.

I wonder how many of those are “Chinese.” I don’t immediately recognize any, and I can only imagine how two or three of those could actually be written in authentic Chinese.

The teacher provided this website: inspirationalstories.com/pro … -on-woman/

My teacher wants us (foreign students) to try and translate or rewrite them in Chinese. He will give an award for the best translation work (a meal at Thai City).

Sorry but I am wit HW on this one. Sounds more like this.

[quote]114.Woman’s tongue like sword that never gets rusty. (Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case)
115.Woman’s voice like monastery bell, when tolling, must attend. (Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case)
[/quote]

EDIT:
though the first one, I am told, could be Lao-Tze’s.

Most of these are difficult to translate into “authentic”-sounding Chinese. Here’s my reasoning.

“Wisdom” is not a very Chinese concept. The word 智慧 is a bit awkward and I suspect came over through Japanese.

“To his woman” is difficult to express succinctly.

“有耐心的女人” sounds overly verbose for a proverb, which is supposed to be short and catchy.

This one I could maybe imagine. Still, don’t know how to phrase it as a proverb.

Again, passion (熱情 or 熱忱) seems very much like a Western idea translated into Chinese.

This one is a bit awkward in English, which makes me think maybe it is translated from Chinese. Just maybe.

There are too many dependent clauses here for me to believe this came from Chinese, unless a translator took a loooooot of liberty with it.
“女人最狡詐的騙術就是對不信她的人說實話.” That’s the only way I can think to translate this, but it’s not good Chinese.

Of course, “crazy about” is very, very English.

What he needs is a chengyu 成語chéngyŭ dictionary. No need to, as we say in Spanish, “rediscover hot water”. As a language exercise these proverbs given by the teacher may have some usefulness as it is an interesting exercise in translation due to the content, but then again I am not a fan of translating as learning tool.

:notworthy: :bravo: :discodance: :thumbsup: :bow: :salute:

Being good at a language does not make you a good translator. Being a good translator does not make you good at a language. Totally.

[quote=“Hokwongwei”]

“Wisdom” is not a very Chinese concept. The word 智慧 is a bit awkward and I suspect came over through Japanese.[/quote]

huh? 智 and 慧 appeared independently pre-Tang dynasty, 智 was used in Mencius, 慧 was used in Lie-zi 列子. It is true that combining the two words could be the result of Buddhist translations. The combined term is widely used in Tang dynasty as it is very common in Chinese Buddhist texts. But the transmission direction of the term is definitely China → Japan and not the other way around.

But yeah, I don’t recognize any of these proverbs.