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2.One day, a tiger caught a fox and was about to devour it. The quick-witted fox stopped the tiger, saying: "How dare you eat me? You should know that I was sent by the heavens to be the king of beasts. If you don't believe me, come with me and see for yourself that there is not animal that isn't afraid of me!"
The tiger agreed.
The fox walked ahead of the tiger through the forest. All the animals that they passed - the rabbits, the deer and all the others - ran for cover upon seeing the fox and the tiger.
The tiger was amazed! The other animals really were afraid of the fox! In fact, the tiger thought that he, too, ought to be afraid of the fox and decided not to eat him after all.
3.In ancient times, there lived a musician named Gong Mingyi. He was a master of the Zheng, a plucked string instrument. Unfortunately, his rash behavior often led him astray.
One day, he saw a cow grazing in a field near his house. He was inspired by the scene and ran outside to play a tune for the cow. Gong Mingyi played beautifully, finding himself intoxicated by the music. But the cow paid no heed to the elegant sounds, simply focusing its attention on eating the grass. Gong Mingyi was surprised at this and could not comprehend the cow’s flippant indifference. He felt that since his performance had been masterful, this means that the cow neither understood nor appreciated his elegant music!
From that story comes the idiom "To play the lute to a cow", which implies that someone speaks or writes without considering his audience. Generally speaking, it means the speaker or writer has over-estimated his listeners or readers. In these cases, the idiom mocks the audience rather than the speaker.
4.During the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), Handan, the capital of the State of Zhao, was famous for people's walking style. They walked in vigorous elegant strides. People in other places admired them very much. They thought the Handanners' way of walking was the best under the heaven. Several young lads from the State of Yan even wanted to copy the elegant walking style of the Handanners. So they traveled a long way to Handan to learn how to walk.
While in Handan, these young lads watched the local people carefully, eager to find out how they walked. But however they tried, they just couldn't walk the way the Handanners did. To make things worse, when they decide to give up and go home, they found they had forgotten their own way of walking. They had to crawl all the way back.
People use this idiom to describe someone who imitates others blindly only to lose his own individuality.
5.During the Southern and Northern Dynasties Period (420-589), there was a Chinese painter called Zhang Sengyao. Once, he visited a temple and painted four dragons on the wall, but he gave none of them eyes. Onlookers thought this odd, and asked why he hadn't painted in the eyes. He answered: "Eyes are crucial for dragons. With the eyes painted in, the dragons would fly away." Nobody believed this, so Zhang Sengyao took up his brush and added eyes to two of the dragons. No sooner had he finished than the two dragons flew into the sky amid a thunderstorm. The two without eyes remained paintings on the wall.
6.In the period of the Warring States (475-221 BC), there was a state called Qi. The king of Qi was so fond of the yu, a wind instrument, that he had a band of more than 300 musicians play for him every afternoon. The king was most satisfied with the band and the harmonies they performed.
Little did the king know that a member of the band, Nan Guo, was not even a musician. In fact, Nan Guo knew nothing about the yu. But he somehow managed to pass himself off as a yu player by sitting right at the back, pretending to play the instrument. The king was none the wiser.
But Nan Guo's charade came to an end when the king's son succeeded him.
The new king, unlike his father, preferred solos to full orchestral performances. The king would therefore summon musicians to perform individually.
7.Among the outstanding figures of Chinese history, famous either for their intelligence or treachery, Cao Cao is one of the foremost.
One hot day, he marched out with his troops under a burning sun into a mountainous area. Bewildered, he lost the way. The journey was long and the sun was scorching. After their fruitless and tiresome march, one and all voiced their great dissatisfaction with the leadership of Cao Cao. Troops bitterly complained of their great thirst. The antagonism of the soldiers was growing fast and they were on the verge of staging a mutiny. The subordinate officers were helpless to cope with the situation. Cao Cao, however, in the nick of time cleverly and treacherously gave orders for his troops to march to some nearby plum trees for a rest and announced that soldiers would be allowed to eat as much as they desired of the juicy sour fruit.At the thought of the sour fruit the soldiers' complaints of great thirst as well as their antagonistic feelings were quickly forgotten.
Of course, Nan Guo's tomfoolery was exposed in no time, and he found himself without a band to hide in anymore.
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