Chinese Fable7

Was there a time when you know that your dream was hard to realize so you made up something to motivate yourself? There is a set phrase in Chinese called 望梅止渴wang4mei2zhi3ke3, which is directed to describe people who create images in their minds to encourage themselves. If you want to learn how to speak mandarin, you must have known the story happened to Caocao, the famous strategist in Chinese history.

This story is being told in fast learning Chinese, in a hot summer, Caocao was leading a troop in a deserted mountain pass. After several days’ marching, everyone was exhausted and thirsty. They had nearly run out of food and water by then and the morale was sinking lower. Seeing the slow pace of the march, Caocao was worried and anxious. But how could they go quicker in want of water? So he asked the guide whether there was water around or not. The guide shook his head and said no. Suddenly, he saw the forest ahead and rode to the head of the troop. He said,” I know that there are many plum trees in the forest ahead. The plums there are huge and juicy. We can enjoy the sweet plums as soon as we arrive. ” Upon hearing, soldiers felt that they had already had plums in their mouths and quickened their pace.

As examples in Chinese language schools, 他没钱买别墅，只能看着广告望梅止渴了

ta1

mei2qian2

mai3

bie2shu4,

zhi3neng2

kan4zhe

guang3gao4

wang4mei2zhi3ke3 le (He can’t afford a house, so he only quenches his thirst by thinking of plums.) There is another set phrase in Chinese which has the same

meaning --- 画饼充饥hua4bing3chong1ji1. It literally means that when people are hungry, they draw a pancake to pretend that they are fed and they seem to be less hungry this way.

If you want to learn to speak Chinese free, online Chinese learning can be helpful. These online Chinese stories are easy to understand and learn.