The nature of the Chinese language lends itself to proverbs and idioms. Just a few characters in Chinese can quickly convey a complex thought. Proverbs and sayings are a tasking study as their origins are difficult to trace; some go back thousands of years and are mentioned in ancient classics such as the Yi Jing and the Dao De Jing .
Many proverbs relate to specific incidents in Chinese history, we have chosen to exclude many of these as they are hard for non-Chinese people to understand without considerable historical context; instead we have chosen proverbs and sayings that give an insight into Chinese culture and traditions.
Translating Chinese proverbs into English is not an easy task. Sometimes there is no similar meaning in English and so a translation may seem contrived. If you can help improve our efforts please let us know.
Chinese proverbs are broadly categorized as either 谚语 yàn yǔ (proverbs or ‘familiar saying’) or 成语 chéng yǔ (meaning ‘become language’ usually translated as ‘idiom’ or ‘accepted saying’). The standard form of Chengyu is made up of four characters and there are thousands of them, one for every possible situation. They are written in classical Chinese where often one character takes the place of two or more in modern Chinese. There are also the 俗语 Sú yǔ which are popular sayings and the 歇后语 Xiē hòu yǔ which are two-part allegorical sayings that are pretty hard to translate. In the first part of a xiehouyu the situation is described and the second gives the underlying truth, so in English there is the similar ‘a bird in the hand, is worth two in the bush’ construction. Often only the first part needs to be said as the second part is implied. Puns are often used in xiehouyu adding to the difficulty of translation.
Here are a few random idioms to give a flavor of the hundreds on this site. The proverbs are grouped according to theme; the same proverb may appear under several categories. Click on this bar to view the extensive group of proverbs.
Alternatively, you can find a proverb by looking through our Chinese pinyin index. As there are so many these are split into separate pages:
When the birds have all been killed, the bow is stored away
Having completed a job and then being out of employment. To get rid of someone once they have served their purpose. To have served your purpose.
金石为开[金石為開]
Jīn shí wéi kāi
Even metal and stone can be pierced
Any difficulty can be overcome given time and commitment. The story is of the famous archer Xiong Quzi of the Zhou dynasty. At dusk he mistook a stone for a tiger and shot an arrow at it. In the morning he found his arrow had penetrated deep into the stone. This led to the idiom that with great skill and determination the apparently impossible can be achieved.
Roughly equivalent to: The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.
暗渡陈仓 [暗渡陳倉]
Àn dù chén cāng
Secretly cross at the Chencang Road
A feigned maneuver designed to outwit. After the fall of the Qin dynasty Liu Bei sent out troops to repair a plank road presumably to mount an attack, but he actually moved his troops across the Wei River at Chencang and so surprised his enemy.
强龙难压地头蛇[強龍難壓地頭蛇]
Qiáng lóng nán yā dì tóu shé
Even a dragon finds it difficult to conquer a snake in its lair
Knowledge of local area and people gives them a distinct advantage even against a strong enemy.
袖手旁观 [袖手旁觀]
Xiù shǒu páng guān
To look on with folded arms
To look on without offering any help or showing concern.
欺以其力
Qī yǐ qí lì
Knowing the approptiate way to cheat
To skilfully deceive. Invent a lie that fools the audience. Playing a clever trick.
Roughly equivalent to: Having an ace up the sleeve.
出尔反尔[出爾反爾]
Chū ěr fǎn ěr
Getting just reward
Do as you would be done to. Repay past behavior appropriately. In modern times this has changed meaning to be more to with inconsistency and self contradictory behavior than justice.
Roughly equivalent to: What you sow, so shall you reap.
桔化为枳 [桔化為枳]
Jú huà wèi zhǐ
Sweet orange turns into orange
People change according to their environment. According to a story orange trees gave different types of fruit depending on whether they were planted north or south of a river.
Anything can be achieved with persistence. The famous story ➚ is that an old man wanted to move a mountain that blocked his path. Despite widespread cynicism he and his descendents gradually wore down the mountain. Mao Zedong used this proverb to persuade people that the seemingly impossible was achievable. One version of the story has the gods taking pity on the old man and removing the mountain with their magical powers.
Roughly equivalent to: Go the extra mile.
We also have an index of the Chinese idioms based on similarly meaning English language proverbs. So you can, for example, find the Chinese equivalent of ‘Many hands make light work’:
Our proverbs come with full information. The modern Chinese characters are given first with links that give information on the character. As proverbs are so old you will often see them written using the traditional form of characters; so if some of the characters have been simplified the traditional form is shown in brackets and gray text. The characters are followed by the proverb (normally a 成语 chéng yǔ) in pinyin. Next, there is a crude character by character transliteration into English, followed by a more accurate English translation. If this is a Chinese proverb alluding to history the meaning may still not be clear in English, so the following notes give an explanation. Finally some proverbs have fairly direct English equivalents, and if so the English proverb is shown.
For background on the types and history of proverbs please see our guide.
See also
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