Easy Way to Learn Chinese Idioms is the first volume of the "Easy Way to Learn" series. It consists of eighty stories about Chinese idioms. This is a unique book fearuring eye-catching illustrations and convenient pinyin. It not only provides foreign readers with an opportunity for learning Chinese idioms and improving their Chinese language ability, but also helps Chinese readers to better their English, enabling them to communicate with foreign friends more freely.
Table of Contents
按图索骥 Look for a steed according to its picture 拔苗助长 Help shoots grow by pulling them upward 百发百中 A hundred shots, a hundred bull's-eyes 杯弓蛇影 Mistake the reflection of a bow in the cup for a snake 伯乐识马 Bo Le judges horses 唇亡齿寒 If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold 此地无银三百两 No 300 taels of silver buried here 呆若木鸡 Dumb as a wooden chicken 道听途说 Heard on the streets and told on the roads 对症下药 Suit the remedy to the illness 对牛弹琴 Play the zither to a cow 负荆请罪 Proffer a birch and ask for a flogging 邯郸学步 Learn the Handan way of walking 囫囵吞枣 Swallow dates whole 狐假虎威 The fox borrows the tiger's fierceness 画蛇添足 Draw a snake and add feet to it 画龙点睛 Bring a picture of a dragon to life by putting in the pupils of its eyes 挥汗成雨 Sweat drips like rain 讳疾忌医 Hide one's sickness for fear of treatment 火中取栗 Pull someone else's chestnuts out of the fire 涸辙之鲋 A fish stranded in a dry rut 江郎才尽 A Jianglang depleted of his talents 金玉其外 败絮其中 Old cotton fiber coated in gold and jade 惊弓之鸟 A bird that starts at the twang of a bowstring 精卫填海 The bird Jingwei trys to fill up the sea with pebbles 橘化为积 An orange becomes another variety when transplanted 克己奉公 Be wholeheartedly devoted to public duty 刻舟求剑 Nick the boat to seek the sword 空中楼阁 Castles in the air 滥竽充数 Pass oneself off as one of the players in an ensemble 梁上君子 Gentleman on the beam 老马识途 An old horse knows the way 买椟还珠 Keep the glittering casket and give back the pearls 盲人摸象 A group of blind men try to size up an elephant 盲人瞎马 A blind man on a blind horse 毛遂自荐 Offer one's services as Mao Sui did 名落孙山 Fall behind Sun Shan 南辕北辙 Try to go south by driving the chariot north 囊萤映雪 Read by the light of bagged fireflies or the reflected light of snow 呕心沥血 Shed one's heart's blood 破釜沉舟 Break the cauldrons and sink the boats 杞人忧天 Like the man from Qi who feared that the sky might fall 曲突徙薪 Bend the chimney and remove the fuel 黔驴技穷 The Guizhou donkey has exhausted its tricks 孺子可教 The boy is worth teaching 入木三分 The handwriting penetrates the wood 塞翁失马 The old frontiersman loses his horse 三令五申 Issue orders three times and give instructions five times 三人成虎 The testimony of three men creates a tiger in the market 守株待兔 Wait by a stump for a hare 熟能生巧 Practice makes perfect 螳臂当车 A mantis trys to obstruct a chariot 螳螂捕蝉 黄雀在后 The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind 铁杵成针 Grind an iron rod into a needle 外强中干 Outwardly strong but inwardly weak 亡羊补牢 Mend the fold after the sheep is lost 望洋兴叹 Lament one's smallness before the great ocean 望梅止渴 Quench one's thirst by thinking of plum 危如累卵 As precarious as a pile of eggs 闻鸡起舞 Rise at cock's crow and practice with the sword 卧薪尝胆 Sleep on brushwood and taste gall 天衣无缝 A seamless heavenly rob 悬梁刺股 Tie one's hair to a beam to keep from nodding of or prod oneself awake with an awl in the thigh 掩耳盗铃 Plug one's ears while stealing a bell 夜郎自大 The ludicrous conceit of the king of Yelang 叶公好龙 Lord Ye's love of dragons 一鸣惊人 Issue a cry to shake the world 一鼓作气 Get something done in one effort 一叶障目 不见泰山 A leaf before the eye shuts out Mt . Tai 疑邻偷斧 Suspect the neighbor of stealing an axe 有志竟成 Where there's a will, there's a way 余音绕梁 The music lingers in the air long after the performance 鹬蚌相争 渔翁得利 When the snipe and the clam grapple, it's the fisherman who stands to benefit 争先恐后 Strive to be the first and fear to lag behind 郑人买履 The man from Zheng buys shoes 纸上谈兵 Fight only on paper 指鹿为马 Call a stag a horse 趾高气扬 Strut about and give oneself airs 朝三暮四 Blow hot and cold 自相矛盾 Contradict oneself 坐井观天 Look at the sky from the bottom of a well
