Unsurprisingly, everyone heard him, and he was caught. Worried that the sound would attract people’s attention, the thief plugged his own ears with some cloth, and felt safe smashing up the bell in silence. The thief found a hammer, and hit the bell, but instead of shattering, it made a loud clanging sound. The only way to take it away was by smashing it into pieces, and moving these pieces one by one. There was a huge bell made of bronze there, which was very expensive, but too heavy to be moved.
A thief slipped into their yard in an attempt to steal valuables. This story was recorded in Master Lü ’ s Spring and Autumn Annals: In the Spring and Autumn period, the Fan clan of the Jin state was wiped out by their enemies, and their house was left deserted. Wǒ juéde gěi xuéshēng liú zhème duō zuòyè shì yàmiáo-zhùzhǎng, duì tāmen de xuéxí wèibì yǒu bāngzhù. I think giving so much homework to these students is like pulling shoots to make them grow. The chengyu that derived from this story refers to doing harm by being over-enthusiastic. After a whole day’s hard work, the farmer was very satisfied, and said to his son: “I am so tired today, but I helped the shoots grow.” The son rushed to the field, only to find that the shoots had withered. Another story from the state of Song appeared there: A Song farmer was anxious about how slowly his crops were growing, so he decided to make them taller by pulling them upward one by one. Mencius’s eponymous text may be a tome of philosophical argument, but it was not without humor. Nǐ děi zhǔdòng xúnzhǎo jīhuì, shǒuzhū-dàitù kě zhǎobudo xīn gōngzuò. Waiting by a tree for a hare won’t bring you a new job. The story birthed a chengyu which is now used to mock people who hold onto unrealistic daydreams, or hope to gain without doing any work. From then on, the peasant never did any farming again, and waited by the tree every day for another hare to smash into the tree stump. He put down his hoe, and went to pick up the dead hare. 守株待兔 Stand by a tree stump waiting for a hareĭuring the Warring States period (475 – 221 BCE), famous Legalist scholar Han Fei recounted a story in his text H an Fei Zi: There was a peasant in the state of Song, who once saw a hare dash into a tree stump in his field and die. Those who fell for pranks today might feel a little stupid In fact, the Chinese term for April Fool’s Day is quite literally “愚人节,” or “Fool’s Festival.” No one likes to be labeled an idiot, but a little foolishness has brought color and laughter to the world for centuries.Ĭautionary tales about idiots litter ancient Chinese history, some of which so tickled their contemporary audiences that their stupidity has been immortalized into commonly used chengyu:
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