A good way to gain a greater understanding of a country and its culture is through its idioms. The following are examples of ancient idioms which reveal the ways in which Chinese people think and see the world.

Yu Gong Yi Shan 愚公移山

In the northern mountains, the was an elderly man who was almost ninety years old. Some considered this man a fool. His home was set behind a pair of tall mountains. The old man was upset by the fact that these mountains acted as an obstacle so he called a family meeting in which he told his family that they would undertake the epic task of flattening the mountains. One day when they were laboring at the mountain, old man of the river paused to talk with the old man. He mocked the old man saying, "What an incredibly foolish man your are! Look at you. You are so frail and old you can’t do this, in fact you are not strong enough to brush a single hair from off the mountain, let alone a whole mountain of dirt and rocks, you silly man!"

The old man let out a lengthy sigh as if contemplating the size of the task at hand, then he replied to the old man of the river: " When I have passed away, my boys shall follow in my footsteps, in turn their sons will follow them, and so on . This will go on and on without fail until the end of time. At the same time the mountains will get smaller, they can’t grow, can they?. Why do you think this is such an impossible task?" The old man of the river was lost for words, he had no rebuttal. A mountain god overheard the old man’s words and was touched by his determination. As a result the god helped with creating the mountain road himself and the job was completed. The idiom ‘yu gong yi shan’ is very similar to the phrase ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’ meaning that if we have enough determination we can do anything.

Kou Mi Fu Jian 口蜜腹剑

This is an idiom which came into use many hundreds of years ago during the Tang Dynasty. Its literal meaning is ‘a cruel heart under the cover of sugar-coated words’. It is commonly used to describe the ruthlessness and coldness of a person using pleasantness as a guise or a ruse.

This idiom originated from a Tang Dynasty official going by the name of Li Linfu and he served under the reign of Emperor Xuanzong.

Li was neither honest nor kind, in fact he was a deeply unpleasant man. Using his wiles he managed to come into good favor with the emperor. The whole of the imperial court was within his thrall, as he ingratiated himself with both the eunuch officials as well as the emperors concubines.

When in the company of others Li appeared very sweet and kind, using flattery and speaking in a gentle way with people. However, this was just a facade. Li was really a terrible bully and he used his cunning to trick and bully. Eventually Li’s cruelty was revealed and he became known as the man with honey in his mouth and a dagger for his heart. From this time people used this idiom to describe anyone that behaves in a way that is similar to how Li behaved.