Learning Chengyu

I’ve always liked the four-character chengyu (成語) sayings, and once had a great little book full of them.

Then I lost the book (and can’t even remember what it was called or who the publisher was).

Since then I’ve bought a couple new books, but the problem is that, according to my wife, about half of the chengyu in them are so old/obscure that they really aren’t that useful. Many others, she says, are things she heard now and then when she was living in Mainland China, but that sound strange to most people in Taiwan.

Can anyone could point me to a good place to learn some of the most common chengyu(preferably a free resource on the net --I’m pretty cheap-- but any source would be helpful)?

If anyone feels like throwing out one or two of their favorites in this thread that would be great too (ideally including the pinyin and English meaning along with the characters).

Thanks!

Hobbes

If I can’t find them in my books I sometimes find it on this site:
epochtimes.com/b5/csc71_1.htm

If you stretch it to include sayings and not just cheng yus
then my favourite is the modern saying 少奮鬥三十年

Cheers
YingFan

You can use this to search the Chengyu you want.
dict.moe.gov.tw/chengyu/sort_pho.htm

These are chengyu learning website.
sces.cyc.edu.tw/4_word/index.asp?offset=20
chiculture.net/0610/html/061 … ol_b.shtml

At one point, I don’t know if it was Shita’s MTC itself or just one or more teachers there, but there was a photocopied list of the “most common” chengyu floating around. I folded the contents into my chengyu list of flashcards on SuperMemo so I can’t identify which are from there and which are not. There is/was a thin photocopied-style booklet available from Shita (if I remember correctly) which I think I got at the famous Lucky Bookstore which may have been the same thing. Odds are it’s still there as the Lucky doesn’t seem to change its offerings much over the decades! :smiley:

I’d just sit down with your wife or any other friendly native-speaking information and put a dot on all the chengyu they think are frequent enough to bother with, and start there. I admit to being horrible with chengyu, always have been, but it is very satisfying those few times when I manage to dredge one up quickly enough for it to make sense.

I’m not a big fan of learning lots of cheng2yu3; I think it’s nice to know a choice few though. Like you, I bought some books on them, and then when I picked some to try, was told they were too obscure. Just two days ago though, I tried out a particular four character phrase in a formal written letter (intended for a judge’s eyes), and it caused the eyebrows to rise when each of my friends who were reviewing the letter read it. Apparently I used it successfully. :smiley: But it wouldn’t be a popular chengyu suitable for sharing in this thread. Here’s one of the latter sort:

一分耕耘 一分收获 yi1 fen1 geng1yun2, yi1 fen1 shou1huo4
You reap what you sow.

Sorry about the simplified; I haven’t got the new PC tweaked to give me traditional using pinyin input yet, so I’m not going to type anymore chengyu now.

:fume:

Yeah, I bought one just like that, probably at Lucky; couldn’t have been more than a dozen to 20 pages, with a cream colored cover. I’ll look for mine next week.

I’m pretty sucky at chengyu as well, but here are some of my favs (ok, some that I actually remember):

塞翁失馬 sai4weng1shi1ma3 - Mr. Sai loses his horse (blessing in disguise)
守株待兔 shou3zhu1dai4tu4 - waiting at the tree for a rabbit (wanting something for nothing)
覆水難收 fu4shui3nan2shou1 - spilt water is hard to retrieve (don’t cry over spilt milk)
紅杏出牆 hong2xing4chu1qiang2 - red apricot flowers have grown outside the fence (wife is cheating on her husband)
以身作則 yi3shen1zuo4ze2 - use oneself as an example (be a good role model)
知己知彼 zhi1ji3zhi1bi3 - know thy self, know thy enemy; typically followed by 百戰百勝 (a hundred wars; a hundred victories); related to 自知之明 (know your own strengths and weaknesses)

Chengyu do not need to be limited to 4 characters although 99.99% of them are. Here’s one of my favourite non-four character chengyu ('cause it’s the only one I can remember):
一寸光陰一寸金 yi2cun4guang1yin1yi2cun4jin1 - an inch of time; an inch of gold (money cannot buy time)

The whole quote is this (very eloquent, imo): 可嘆一寸光陰一寸金,寸金難買寸光陰。寸金使盡金還在,過去光陰那裡尋?

EDIT: Just thought of another non-four character one. 百聞不如一見 bai3wen2bu4ru2yi2jiang4 - hearing it a hundred times does not compare to seeing it once (seeing is believing)

[quote=“sjcma”]塞翁失馬 sai4weng1shi1ma3 - Mr. Sai loses his horse (blessing in disguise)
[/quote]

I’ve always liked that one. It continues “… yan1 zhi1 fei1 fu2” (but) how (can one) know (it is) not (in fact) good fortune?
In fact, wouldn’t you be more likely to use the 2nd half, rather than the first, and rather than the entirety ?

You could use the 2nd half as the equiv. of something like “well, ya never know – might be for the best” or " well, maybe something good will come of it…" or “every cloud has a silver lining”.

[quote=“Dragonbones”][quote=“sjcma”]塞翁失馬 sai4weng1shi1ma3 - Mr. Sai loses his horse (blessing in disguise)
[/quote]

I’ve always liked that one. It continues “… yan1 zhi1 fei1 fu2” (but) how (can one) know (it is) not (in fact) good fortune?
In fact, wouldn’t you be more likely to use the 2nd half, rather than the first, and rather than the entirety ?

You could use the 2nd half as the equiv. of something like “well, ya never know – might be for the best” or " well, maybe something good will come of it…" or “every cloud has a silver lining”.[/quote]

Yup, one typically uses the whole phrase 塞翁失馬 焉知非福 or just 焉知非福 by itself. However, I don’t think 焉知非福 counts as a 成語. It’s just a short sentence.

Does qing1 pen2 da4 yu3 count?

Luan4 qi1 ba1 zao1?

Wu1 qi1 ma1 hei1?

Here are some from Dragonbabe, sans explanation:

Tian1 xia4 wu2 shuang1

Si4 hai3 you2 long2, ba1 fang1 yun2 ji2

qi1 shang4 ba1 xia4

qian2 pu1 hou4 ji4

晴天霹靂 qing2 tian1 pi1 li4 (clear sky thunder) = a bolt from the blue
打鐵趁熱 da3 tie3 chen4 re4 (strike iron while hot) = strike while the iron is hot

It sure does. 傾盆大雨 - pour basin big rain (raining, like, a lot, eh)

亂七八糟 - chaotic seven, messy eight (disorderly)

烏漆嘛黑 - really dark

天下無雙 - under the heavens, there is no other (unique)

四海遊龍 八方雲集 - sounds ominous…clouds gathering from all over and all. What does this mean besides being names of dumpling restaurants?

七上八下 - seven up, eight down (feeling unsettled)

前仆後繼 - front falls rear continues (brave and fearless behaviour [of an army, etc.])

I find that learning chengyu on its own is pretty useless unless you learn it in context and how it is typically employed. Otherwise, it’s easy to use it in the wrong way. Try composing sentences with your favourite chengyu and get someone to check it to see if it makes sense. Like the following “Ode to Dragonbabe” I just made up. I can’t guarantee you all the chengyu are being used correctly, but it was fun putting it together.

Dragonbabe頌

小龍辣妹,眉清目秀,仙姿玉色,天下無雙;
眉歡眼笑,人見人愛,眉飛色舞,滿面春光。
擦肩而過,七上八下,欲仙欲死,輾轉反側;
討好紅顏,打鐵趁熱,毫無保留,勇往直前。
一落千丈,白夢一場,夢中情人,名花有主;
塞翁失馬,焉知非福,天涯何處無芳草。

[quote]Dragonbones wrote:
Si4 hai3 you2 long2, ba1 fang1 yun2 ji2

四海遊龍 八方雲集 - sounds ominous…clouds gathering from all over and all. What does this mean besides being names of dumpling restaurants? [/quote]

I am not sure they are cheng yu.
140.111.34.46/cgi-bin/chengyu/searchResult.cgi
chiculture.net/0610/html/061 … 05_6.shtml

They don’t list "四海遊龍 八方雲集"are chengyu.

Nowaday there are some chengyu are misused.
Like :there was a supermarket promotion post :
Mei3 zhou1 “kuang2 chou1 meng3 song4”.
It is totally wrong.
This is orginally from the Chinses classic book(sorry,I forgot it is 紅樓夢or another one) and means something about men and women…

Chengyu used in some movies title:
臥虎藏龍
迫在眉梢
天生一對
永不妥協
王者天下
獨領風騷
英雄本色
縱橫四海…

[quote=“sjcma”][quote=“Dragonbones”][quote=“sjcma”]塞翁失馬 sai4weng1shi1ma3 - Mr. Sai loses his horse (blessing in disguise)
[/quote]

I’ve always liked that one. It continues “… yan1 zhi1 fei1 fu2” (but) how (can one) know (it is) not (in fact) good fortune?
In fact, wouldn’t you be more likely to use the 2nd half, rather than the first, and rather than the entirety ?

You could use the 2nd half as the equiv. of something like “well, ya never know – might be for the best” or " well, maybe something good will come of it…" or “every cloud has a silver lining”.[/quote]

Yup, one typically uses the whole phrase 塞翁失馬 焉知非福 or just 焉知非福 by itself. However, I don’t think 焉知非福 counts as a 成語. It’s just a short sentence.[/quote]
You can just use 塞翁失馬 or whole phrase.
But not 焉知非福.

[quote=“wisher”]You can just use 塞翁失馬 or whole phrase.
But not 焉知非福.[/quote]

I think using just the latter four characters is logical, and I have also heard it used just like that.

:laughing: Dunno. Dragonbabe mentioned this one to me, specifically in the context of dumpling restaurants. :smiley:

畫蛇添足 - paint a snake and add feet; to add something which messes up the whole thing

畫龍點眼 - paint in the eyes of a dragon; to add a small detail which brings the whole thing together

[quote=“Dragonbones”][quote=“wisher”]You can just use 塞翁失馬 or whole phrase.
But not 焉知非福.[/quote]

I think using just the latter four characters is logical, and I have also heard it used just like that.

:laughing: Dunno. Dragonbabe mentioned this one to me, specifically in the context of dumpling restaurants. :smiley:[/quote]
When I was a student I used the 焉知非福,my teacher said it was wrong usage.
Because it’s the “result”.
So when you said 塞翁失馬,then people will know you mean “焉知非福”.
If people used the latter four words then maybe it is right,too.

四海遊龍 八方雲集yes,they are dumpling restaurants.yummy! :smiley:

四海遊龍 八方雲集 - sounds ominous…clouds gathering from all over and all. What does this mean besides being names of dumpling restaurants?

Well, acc. to da babe, the four oceans and eight directions means from everywhere, and the dragons and clouds represent men of great talent, reputation, etc.; it would be used to describe a gathering of great warriors in a martial arts novel, for example. [/quote] :idunno:

這場比賽八方高手雲集…
海內外子孫八方雲集,齊祝國運昌榮…
That’s what I find how to use “八方雲集”.