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The Paper (simplified Chinese: 澎湃新闻; traditional Chinese: 澎湃新聞; pinyin: Péngpài Xīnwén; lit. 'Surging News'), a Shanghai-based, state-owned online newspaper, has an article in Chinese reporting that the city of Handan in Hebei province is changing the names of more than a dozen of its roads that are named after chéngyǔ 成语 ("idioms; set phrases"). The reason given for changing these road names is "bùyì shíjì dàolù 不易识记道路" ("it's not easy to remember the streets").

yīyánjiǔdǐng Jiē

一言九鼎街

"'one word is worth nine sacred tripods' street; 'words of enormous weight' street; 'solemn promise' street"

origins of the expression in the 4th c. BC, annotations, commentary, explanation, occurrences throughout history, contemporary usage

 zhìzàisìfāng Jiē

志在四方街

"'aspire to travel far and make one's mark' street"

source in a late Ming dynasty historical novel by Feng Menglong (1574–1646)

The irony of all this is that Handan is the city of idioms par excellence:

Handan is hailed as the capital of Chinese idioms. As a prosperous city and cultural center during the Warring States period, Handan attracted many scholars. Over 1,500 idioms and proverbs are attributed to the city. The following are some of the most well known idioms.

• • 邯鄲學步 (literally: "to study the walking method of Handan"), meaning to badly imitate others, and lose one's individuality in the process.
  • 黃粱一夢 (literally: "millet dream"), meaning a pipe dream.
  • 頂天立地 (literally: "stand upright on one's two legs between heaven and earth"), meaning to be fiercely independent.
  • 圍魏救趙 (literally: "to besiege the State of Wei to rescue the State of Zhao"), meaning to relieve a besieged ally by attacking the besiegers.
  • 不可同日而語 (literally: "musn't speak of the two things on the same day"), meaning incomparable.
  • 驚弓之鳥 (literally: "a bird frightened by the mere sound of shooting arrows"), a panic-stricken person.
  • 鷸蚌相爭，漁翁得利 (literally: "when the snipe and the oyster fight, it is the fisherman that wins"), when two parties fight, it is always the third one who wins. King of Yan sent a representative to King Hui of Zhao to relay this message in order for him to rethink his plans of war.
  • 曠日持久 (literally: "drawn out and protracted"), meaning to be protracted.
  • 完璧歸趙 (literally: "returning the Jade to Zhao"), meaning to return something to its owner in good condition.
  • 价值连城 (literally: "to be worth numerous contiguous cities"), meaning priceless.
  • 怒髮衝冠 (literally: "one's hair raised to the hat in anger"), meaning to be furious.
  • 負荊請罪 (literally: "carrying thorned grass and pleading guilt"), meaning to offer someone a humble apology.
  • 紙上談兵 (literally: "to discuss military tactics on paper"), meaning to be an armchair strategist.
  • 青出於藍，而勝於藍 (literally: "green is born of blue, but beats blue"), meaning to outmaster the teacher.

Handan is also the hometown of many notable Chinese people throughout history, some of whom were featured in idioms:

• • Lian Po, a military general of Zhao. Regarded one of the four greatest generals of the Warring States period.
  • Lin Xiangru, politician of the Warring States period. He's featured in two idioms, "Returning the Jade to Zhao" and "Carrying Thorned Grass and Pleading Guilt".
  • Xun Kuang, Confucianism philosopher.
  • Xu Huaizhong, novelist.
  • Qin Shi Huang, founder of the Qin dynasty and was the first Emperor of China.
  • Cao Cao, Han chancellor, poet, and warlord. One of the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period.
  • Huang Hua, senior Communist Chinese revolutionary. The county-level city of Huanghua, Cangzhou, was named after him.
  • Feng Jianming, literature scholar.
  • Fang Lijun, an artist based in Beijing.
  • Yang Luchan, martial arts teacher.
  • Deng Shu, father of Teresa Teng. He was a soldier of the Republic of China Armed Forces.
  • Sun Qingmei, football player.
  • Zhao Shi, football player.
  • Zhang Weili, mixed martial artist, ring name "Magnum". She is the first ever Chinese and East Asian champion in UFC history.
  • Chang Yongxiang, wrestler.

It must have been quite a trip to live in a city where people were constantly quoting idioms, even when they wanted to ask / give directions

Selected readings

• "'The old man at the pass loses his horse'" (5/2/20)
• "Mixed literary and vernacular grammar" (9/3/16)
• "I'm (like)" (8/30/21)
• "Learning Chinese is easy — not" (7/18/22)
• "Eighty-one Cantonese proverbs in one picture" (2/27/14)
  
• "Too tired to love: new set phrases in Pinyin" (12/23/19)
• "Chinese proverbs" (1/19/16)
• "More literary troubles for Xi Jinping" (1/3/19) — see especially this comment for the sharply diminished usage of set phrases in contemporary speech and writing
• "A [class.] zoo" (1/18/15)
• "Mistakes in English and in Chinese" (2/13/18)
• "How to learn to read and write Chinese" (8/13/19)
• "Excessive quadrisyllabicism" (2/17/18) — I was reminded of this post by this tweet from the author of the following famous article
• "Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard" (8/27/91)

[Thanks to Christopher Shell]

August 1, 2024 @ 6:18 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Idioms, Toponymy

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