Chinese Proverbs and Popular Sayings. Larry Herzberg

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СКАЧАТЬ The master leads the student through the door, but perfecting one’s skill is up to the student.]

      (A teacher can only expose students to knowledge; then it’s up to the student to work hard to learn what he or she has been taught.)

      Shīfu lǐng jìn mén, xiūxíng zài gèrén.

      师傅领进门，修行在个人。

      If jade is not cut and polished, it can’t be made into anything useful (and beautiful).

      (You can’t become anyone of consequence without the proper training and discipline.)

      Yù bù zhuó bù chéng qì.

      玉不琢不成器。

      If you want people to know you, study diligently; if you are afraid for people to know you, don’t do things that are wrong.

      (To be known and respected, study hard; to remain unknown, do nothing bad.)

      Yào rén zhī, zhòng qín xué; pà rén zhī, shì mò zuò.

      要人知，重勤学；怕人知，事莫做。

      LEARNING IS AN ENDLESS TASK THAT REQUIRES GREAT EFFORT

      Live ’til you’re old and study ’til you’re old, but there’s still 30% you’ll never learn.

      Huódào lǎo xuédào lǎo, hái yǒu sānfēn xuébudào.

      活到老学到老，还有三分学不到。

      You are never too old to learn.

      Xué bú yàn lǎo.

      学不厌老。

      Even a hundred-foot-high bamboo can still grow taller.

      [lit., advance one step further]

      Bǎi chǐ gāntóu gèng jìn yíbù.

      百尺竿头更进一步。

      When trees get old, their trunks become half-empty [hollow]; when people get old, they are full of knowledge about many things.

      Shù lǎo bàn xīn kōng; rén lǎo shìshì tōng.

      树老半心空；人老事事通。

      There is no end of books to read, [just as there is] no end of roads to travel.

      (It is impossible for anyone to ever know all there is to know.)

      Dú bú jìn de shū, zǒu bù wán de lù.

      读不尽的书，走不完的路。

      To have half-knowledge of ten things is not as good as thorough knowledge of just one.

      (Better to master one thing than try to be a “Jack of all trades, master of none.”)

      Shí shì bàn tōng bùrú yí shì jīngtōng.

      十事半通不如一事精通。

      Learning has no boundaries.

      Xué wú zhǐ jìng.

      学无止境。—Confucius

      Learning is like rowing a boat against the current; if you don’t advance, you’ll regress.

      Nì shuǐ xíng zhōu, bú jìn zé tuì.

      逆水行舟，不进则退。

      Familiarity can engender skill.

      (Practice makes perfect.)

      Shú néng shēng qiǎo.

      熟能生巧。

      “A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING”

      Better to go without books than to believe everything they say.

      (Don’t believe everything you read.)

      Jìn xìn shū bù rú wú shū.

      尽信书不如无书。

      Learning without thinking is ignorance; thinking without learning (study) is dangerous.

      Xué ér bùsī zé wǎng, sī ér bù xué zé dài.

      学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆。

      If you know [something], to recognize that you know it; and if you don’t know [something], to realize that you don’t know it—that is [true] knowledge.

      Zhī zhī wéi zhī zhī bù zhī wéi bù zhī shì zhī yě.

      知之为知之不知为不知是知也。—Confucius

      [Don’t be like] a frog at the bottom of a well.

      (This proverb is based on an ancient fable of a frog that lived at the bottom of a well. He thought that the well was the entire world, until one day a sea turtle fell in and informed him of a much larger world outside the narrow confines of that well. The Chinese, as well as the Japanese, use this fable to describe people with a provincial, narrow-minded view of things due to ignorance.)

      Jǐng dǐ zhī wā.

      井底之蛙。

      TRUE KNOWLEDGE

      One can know the world without going outside. One can see the Way of Heaven without looking out the window.

      Bù chū hù, zhī tiānxià; búkuì yǒu, jiàn tiān dào.

      不出户，知天下；不窥牖， 见天道。—Lao Zi

      2 Patience and Perseverance

      Traditional societies with long histories perhaps know the value of patience better than societies with much shorter histories. They understand that it often takes a long time to bring about the changes that you desire. The first saying below derives from the fact that in ancient China, except for the upper class, the majority of people often didn’t have enough to eat. To become fat in traditional China, and indeed in almost every traditional society in the world, was a sign that you were prosperous enough to have an abundance of food. So being “fat” was a good thing!

      The fourth proverb below refers to an ancient story about an old farmer who lived on one side of a huge mountain but whose fields were on the other side. Every morning, the old man and his sons had to go around the mountain to cultivate their crops. One day, the old man convinced his sons to start removing the mountain СКАЧАТЬ