Learn Chinese Idiom：害群之马

 

2013-06-04 18:06 ChineseTime

hài qún zhī mǎ :wēi hài mǎ qún de liè mǎ 。 
害群之马:         危害马群的劣马。
                       bǐ yù wēi hài shè huì huò jí tǐ de rén 。
                      比喻危害社会或集体的人。
Meaning: The Horse Which Does Harm To The Herd - A Black Sheep.

The horse which does harm to the herd-A black sheep

      It was about four thousand years ago. Huangdi (Yellow Emperor)-the first legendary ruler in China went to the countryside to visit an old friend with his entourage.     

        They met a boy keeping watch over a herd of horses on their way.

       Huangdi asked the boy, "Do you know the way to my friend's village far away from here?"
       The boy said yes.
       Then the emperor asked, "Do you know my friend?"
       The answer was yes again.
       Huangdi thought the boy was broad-minded. So he asked him,"Do you know how to rule a country?"
       The boy said, "There is little difference between ruling a country and watching over a herd of horses. You simply have to drive the wild horses out of the herd."

       The emperor left, brooding over the boy's words.

       The idiom 害(hài) 群(qún) 之(zhī) 马(mǎ)  is taken from what the boy said and is used to describe anyone who has a bad influence on his peers.

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害(hài) 群(qún) 之(zhī) 马(mǎ) 

 dà yuē sì qiān nián qián ， huáng dì － chuán shuō zhōng zhōng guó de dì yí gè dì wáng ，
大约四千年前，黄帝－传说中中国的第一个帝王，
dài zhe suí cóng qù xiāng cūn kàn wàng tā de yí gè lǎo péng you 。
带着随从去乡村看望他的一个老朋友。
lù shang ， tā men yù dào le yí gè kān shǒu mǎ qún de xiǎo nán hái 。
路上，他们遇到了一个看守马群的小男孩。

yóu yú qù péng you de cūn zhuāng lù tú yáo yuǎn ，
由于去朋友的村庄路途遥远，
huáng dì jiù wèn xiǎo nán hái ：
黄帝就问小男孩：
“ nǐ zhī bu zhī dào cūn zhuāng de lù ？
“你知不知道村庄的路？
 nà ér zhù zhe wǒ de yí gè péng you 。 ”
那儿住着我的一个朋友。”
nán hái shuō zhī dào 。
男孩说知道。

huáng dì yòu wèn nán hái ： “ rèn bu rèn shí wǒ de péng you ？ ”
黄帝又问男孩：“认不认识我的朋友？”
nán hái huí dá rèn shí 。
男孩回答认识。
huáng dì xiǎng zhè xiǎo hái dǒng zhè me duō ，
黄帝想这小孩懂这么多，
yú shì wèn tā ： “ nǐ zhī dào gāi zěn yàng zhì lǐ guó jiā ma ？ ”
于是问他：“你知道该怎样治理国家吗？”
nán hái shuō ： “ zhì lǐ guó jiā de fāng fǎ hé kān shǒu yì qún mǎ chà bù duō 。
男孩说：“治理国家的方法和看守一群马差不多。
zhǐ yào bǎ yě mǎ cóng mǎ qún lǐ gǎn chū qu jiù xíng le 。 ”
只要把野马从马群里赶出去就行了。”
huáng dì lí kāi shí yì zhí xiǎng zhe xiǎo nán hái de huà 。
黄帝离开时一直想着小男孩的话。

chéng yǔ “ hài qún zhī mǎ ” chū zì yú zhè ge xiǎo nán hái shuō de huà ，
成语“害群之马”出自于这个小男孩说的话，
yòng lái xíng róng gěi jí tǐ dài lái huài yíng xiǎng de rén 。
用来形容给集体带来坏影响的人。

New Words:

传说的 [chuán shuō de ]: legendary   

随从 [suí cóng ]: entourage   

看望 [kàn wàng ]：pay a visit to

遥远 [yáo yuǎn ]: remote   

治理 [zhì lǐ ]: rule   

影响 [yíng xiǎng ]: influence

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Chinese Poems:Yellow Crane Tower

Yellow Crane Tower

Introducion:

The Yellow Crane Tower has a great myth behind it which induces contemplation on the part of whoever ascends the tower.   

Text:

黄鹤楼

崔颢（唐）

xī rén yǐ chéng huáng hè qù，cǐ dì kōng yú huáng hèlóu。

昔 人已   乘    黄     鹤 去，此地  空   余   黄    鹤 楼 。

huáng hè yí  qù  bú  fù  fǎn，  bái yún qiān zǎi kōng yōu yōu。

黄    鹤  一  去  不 复 返， 白   云    千   载    空    幽 幽。

qíng chuān lì lì hàn yáng shù，fāng cǎo qī qī yīng wǔzhōu。

  晴   川  历历 汉   阳     树， 芳    草  萋萋  鹦   鹉  洲。

rì mù xiāng guān hé chù shì，yān bō jiāng shàng shǐrén chóu。

日暮    乡  关   何 处   是， 烟   波  江   上     使  人  愁。

Yellow Crane Tower

Cui Hao(Tang)

Gone are the angelsmounted on the yellow crane

Here idly stands but the Yellow Crane Tower

Ohgoneforever goneis the yellow crane

The clouds for a thousand years vainly hover

The trees still border the river glistening bright

The isle is green with grass that in luxury grows

But where can my home be found in the twilight?

I am so sad to see the misty rolling billows

Comment

The Yellow Crane Tower has a great myth behind it which induces contemplation on the part of whoever ascends the tower. Highly compact deeply meditative and emotional the first four lines focus on the poet's immediate impression of the Tower that has been idly standing there for ages watching men coming and going beneath. Awakened to reality and looking far from the tower the poet sees the sun-lit Hanyang lying still beyond the luxuriant green trees stretching along the banks of the Yangtze River and the lush green grasses glistening on the mist-veiled Parrot Isle in the river. Climbing up the deserted tower and watching the Yangtze flow eastward in the twilight, the poet is deeply touched asking from the bottom of his heart "Where is my home?"

In the poem, sentiment scene image and spirit are seamlessly blended as seen from below,the image developing from abstract to concrete its antitheses getting perfect as the poem moves along the scenes turning real from imaginary and the sentiment being transmitted from others to the poet himself. No wonder the poem has been considered the peak of all inscriptive poetry in ancient Chinese art and literature.

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How to say "to remember" in Chinese - 记住 "jizhu"

• Posted by sikora on May 29, 2013 at 8:19pm in Daily Chinese Sentence

记住，我们明天早上五点半要走了。Remember, we have to leave at 5:30am tomorrow.

Jì zhù, wǒmen míngtiān zǎoshang wǔ diǎn bàn yào zǒule.

记住 jìzhù /to remember/

This word can be a little tricky to use because you'll also find 记 without 住 but it will still mean "to remember."  It's also common to see 记得 and 记了.  If you want to say you can't remember, you put the 不 in the middle, like this:

我记不住。 

Wǒ jì bù zhù.

Remember ; ) there are lots of ways to talk about remembering (and forgetting) in Chinese so don't get confused if you see it translated differently.

Translate 1 of these or write your own to get feedback on your writing:

• Please remember to turn off the lights.
• I can only remember her name.
• I can't remember her email address.
• You have to remember to go to that restaurant!

Write your translations or new example sentences in the comments below. Include 汉字, Pinyin & English if possible.

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Practice Chinese with the best teachers

HOW TO LEARN CHINESE WELL

Auther Juven

First, there is no shortcut to learn Chinese well in a short time. Practice more is the better way to learn it well. In fact, there are some ways to learn Chinese well because of the internet now.

1. Looking for a good text book or material is important, such as “40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course” 基础汉语40课, you can learn it more effectively with less time and more convenience. You can have a brief look at it: http://read.fanshu.com/ReadBook.aspx?metaId=7-5617-3103-5&page=7
2. You can use the media such as radio, TV and Internet to help. For example, in the internet you can find many good places to learn. Likewww.chinadaily.com  where you can read the news, there are some lessons for learning Chinese. You can watch CCTV-4, there is a program: “Happy Chinese” 快乐汉语. In the net you also can find it at http://space.tv.cctv.com/podcast/klhy.
3. You can use some chatrooms to try to chat with native Chinese, such as http://english.bliao.com. There are many Chinese people that want to learn English, and will help you learn Chinese there; they are really friendly.
4. There are many Confucius colleges (孔子学院) now outside China, so if there is one around you, you can register to learn. You also can go to the web: http://college.chinese.cn/
5. If you want to learn more actively, you’d better come to the special Chinese learning web, such as www.chineseteachers.com. You can make conversation with teachers and learn with good structure.
6. You can try your best to practice with them after you learned some Chinese.
7. Read some short stories or some jokes, learn to sing some Chinese songs, play some games. I think they are also good way to learn Chinese.
8. You’d better remember words or recite some good articles as much as possible. In China, the children will recite many poems and proverbs etc.

How do you think ?



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How to learn Chinese fast: my (lazy) way

 BY FURIO FU 

This article introduces my plan to learn Chinese fast, where “fast” doesn’t mean that I hope to learn how to speak Mandarin within two months. Conversely, I intend to optimizing my time and efforts to learn Chinese by only studying an hour per day.

My goal is to be able to read Chinese newspapers, understand a talk show and have a “normal speed” conversation with any Chinese person. I want to achieve this purpose within one year.

Chinese is the sixth language that I’m learning so this plan is based on my past experience.

Also, I’m a big fan of SRS (spaced repetition software). If you are just starting to study Mandarin or you never heard the word “SRS” before, you should definitely keep reading : – )

My plan to learn Chinese

Commitment

I’m a lazy pig. However when I pay for a gym I can easily motivate myself to train three times per week. So I thought that I could use the same strategy and I bought a Chinese course (Rocket Chinese).

This is also what Napoleon Hill suggests on his book Think and Grow Rich, which is probably the best book that I ever read on goal achievement.

The idea is that we will only pursue our goals if we have invested some resources on them (time, money, face and so on). For the same reason, I also decided to make a public commitment and monthly update my progresses on this website.

Immersion

I’ll watch at least two hours of Chinese television per week, hopefully a good movie. I’ll upload the lessons of my language course and some Chinese music – so far I only got a couple of albums by the Fenghuang Chuanqi (see video below) – on my iPod.

I will speak with local people in Chinese even when they try to switch to English (my Chinese is bad and people often get bored). This doesn’t include working time, as I have to speak English at work.

Context

If “sugar” then “sweet.” If “fire” then “smoke.” Our brain recalls information by generating connections. This is a well-known concept among the people that study memory.

This means that when we try to memorize Chinese characters one by one, we are slowing down our learning process. We can learn much faster by studying short sentences that provide a specific context for the characters.

I’m not saying anything new. I found this concept over and over again and this is the way kids learn a language. Also, Chinese characters change their meaning according to the context.

As an example, take the characters 小 (which means “small”) and 心 (which means “heart”). If you put them together you obtain the Chinese word 小心, which means “be careful.”

This is not an exception. It’s just how Mandarin works: changing the order of the addends you’ll get a different result.

By now it should be obvious to anyone that studying the Chinese characters one by one isn’t so effective. However there are still a lot of people that choose to do so (I’ve been there too).

Memorize the most common 3,000 Chinese characters

I’ll use a free software called Anki to learn and revise Chinese characters through flashcards with a clever scheduling called SRS.

Anki’s screenshot: you can see how the flashcard for a question (on the left) and an answer (on the right) appears.

In order to exploit the “context” rule, I downloaded a deck of flashcards called Mastering Chinese Characters, which is composed of 14,000 sentences.

Smart.fm, the company that released it (you can download it for free once you installed Anki), claims that the deck contains the 98% of characters used in newspapers.

This deck mostly contains sentences so I can learn these 3,000 characters in the right context.

This should allow me to learn the WORDS used in the newspapers. Again, a Chinese word is often composed of two or three characters.

Evaluate my results

In order to achieve any long term objective, we need to set measurable short term goals. My weekly measurable goal will be to learn fifty new flashcards per day, to complete a lesson of my Chinese course and watch a Chinese movie in Chinese.

Also, I’ll try to talk in Chinese as often as I can. I may modify my goals if, after a while, I find them too easy or too difficult.

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