WICtemplate.PDFVIP

300 Chinese Proverbs 5,000 Years of Chinese Wisdom Week in China Week in China 300 Chinese Proverbs Winter 2015 Proverbial wisdom Our columnist Mei selects 3 00 Chinese p roverbs uring its five thousand years of civilisation, China has created tens of thousands Dof proverbs which capture the essence of the nation’s history, culture and prevail- ing philosophy. Many of them contain Confucian wisdom, Taoist and Buddhist phi- losophy, social etiquette, as well as success and survival tactics. Some of the proverbs are clearly obsolete given changes in Chinese society in recent decades, i.e. those that are derogatory to dogs, feel odd to the country’s many dog own- ers. Some are just outright outdated, i.e. the many that discriminate against women (one of the worst: “An unschooled girl is a virtuous one”). However, some still hold their value and are used by modern Chinese every day. One of the proverbs that I often use while talking to my Western friends is 塞翁失马 ，焉知非福. The literal meaning is ‘when Old Man Sai lost his horse, it was hard to judge whether it was a good thing or bad thing’. The story behind it came from ancient times when an old man living in Sai-shang lost his horse. His neighbour pitied him but he replied: “Don’t worry. Who knows that this is not a good thing?” A few days later, his horse returned with a herd of beautiful horses. The neighbours congratulated the old man, but he replied: “I’m not sure this is a good thing.” Sure enough, the old man’s son was thrown off the back by one of the new horses and broke his leg. Others pitied him again but he said: “I am not upset since this could turn out to be g