It is known to all that 2016 is a Monkey Year, but do you know there are many stories in china about monkey besides Monkey King? “朝三暮四”is one of them. Literally, 朝 means morning; 三is three; 暮 represent evening; 四 equals four; when these four words joined together, they have a meaning of chop and change.

Why is that? Here is the legendary story:

It is said there was a monkey breeder in ancient times who had a bunch of monkeys. He gave every monkey 3 nuts in the morning and 4 in the evening. The monkeys were not satisfied with the number they get for they thought they need more nuts to eat one day. Then they decided to negotiate with the breeder about the number of nuts.

The breeder was surprised what the monkeys said. He said, “I am so sorry that I didn’t realize the question. So, I’ll change the number to 4 in the morning and 3 in the evening. What do you think?” The monkeys cheered up after they heard that they can get 4 nuts in the morning, but no one cares about the number of the nuts in evening. In other words, they still get 7 nuts a day in total.

So, this phrase is used to represent someone change his or her mind frequently.