Title: A thousand pieces of gold,
A Memoir of China’s Past Through It’s Proverbs
Author: Adeline Yen Mah
She is the bestselling author of Falling Leaves and Watching the Tree.
a Proverb:
yi zi quian jing one written word is worth a thousand pieces of gold
Each of the chapters has first a Proverb written in English, then the chinese characters ( writing symbols ), and then same proverb in Chinese letters.
Learn Something New: ( My motto)
When I first started to read this book, as I read a chapter, I copied down onto an index card each of the Proverbs , along with the chinese symbols, and chinese words. I carried these with me in my purse a couple of years ago and when during the course of my day I had a few extra moments , I would take these out and read them. I also shared some of these with my co-workers and friends.
Many of the proverbs come from the Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian. Sima Qian wrote his book, Shiji, (Historical Record) some two thousand years ago.
Origin of Chinese Proverbs:
Proverbs arise from ancient historical literature, poetry and other writings. They carry philosphical messages that make them relevant and meaningful in contemporary life.
Most of the words of the Chinese language originate from pictures of actual objects . The Chinese are used to viewing life in specific incidents to illustrate abstract ideas.
The use of Chinese proverbs is often viewed as a measure of Chinese persons knowledge of history, level of education, and depth of wisdom.
The Chinese language has no alphabet. You can understand written Chinesewithout knowing how to read aloud or speaking a single word. In the Chinese language each word is a different symbol and must be memorized separately.
” Walr Whitman once saud that ‘Into the English language are woven sorrows,joys,loves,needs, and heartbreaks of the common people.’”. The same is said for Chinese provebs and metaphors.
Proverb:
gu zhang nan ming
clapping with one hand produces no sound;
a person cannot negotiate by himself, or it takes two to tango
Jiu niu yi mao
loss of one hair from nine oxen:
the description of a person, an achievement, a discovery or any event that appears to be insignificant and non-consequential on the surface, but may actually be of great importance.
