What idioms do you know?

Allusions of "Three Sheep Open Thailand"

"Ma Chi leads the wind, and sheep leads the peace." In the afternoon, the horse walks slowly and the sheep comes slowly. People use this sentence to meet the occasion. Another timely sentence is also used more frequently: three sheep (yang) open Thailand. Yang and sheep are homophonic. Three sheep in the sun, a traditional auspicious symbol pattern in China, is called "Three sheep open Thailand" (with photos).

The theory of "Three Yang Kai Tai" comes from the Book of Changes. Among the sixty-four hexagrams, the ancients used Kun as the October hexagram, Fu as the November hexagram, and Lin as the December hexagram. Divination is divided into yin and yang. All the six hexagrams of Kun regard Yin as the image of pure Yin; "Fu" hexagrams a Yang was born in the next; "Pro" hexagrams were born under Yang Er; As for "Tai", there are three Yang Yao talking about Kun, so "Three" became the auspicious language at the beginning of the year. In the Ming Dynasty drama "Noisy Zhong Kui", on the first day of New Year's Day, the true gentleman of Sanyang gave a banquet in Sanyang to celebrate the New Year-saying that "the true gentleman of Sanyang led the prince of Sanyang" and Sanyang symbolized Sanyang.

The twelve earthly branches belong to the same family, but they are not sheep. But not since ancient times. In 1970s, the Qin bamboo slips "Tianshu" unearthed in Yunmeng Crouching Tiger Land in Hubei Province recorded a set of different zodiac signs, including "At noon, the deer also. No, so is the horse ... hey, so is the old sheep. " The corresponding branch of the sheep is not empty. Moreover, in this zodiac table, only the sheep are labeled as "old", as if the "lamb" sheep are not qualified to be a zodiac. Why the Qin bamboo slips "Sleeping Tiger Land" respects the "old" sheep is worth discussing. About "Weiyang", Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province have been recorded. The Qin bamboo slips on Fangmatan are also considered as Han bamboo slips by some scholars.

There are different opinions about whether the origin of the zodiac is in China or Babylon. The Babylonian zodiac is nicknamed "exotic zodiac" by modern people, and it is especially kind to sheep. There are two zodiac signs related to sheep. They are Aries and Capricorn. Around 3000 BC, shepherds living in Babylon called the stars "sheep in the sky" and the planets "sheep of one year". This is probably why sheep occupy two seats in the zodiac. Aries is the first of the 12 zodiac signs in Babylon, which is related to the vernal equinox of that year. Its image in the map of Babylon is a farmer with ears of wheat.

Guo Moruo claims that the zodiac culture is foreign, and one of the bases of his argument is to take Aries Palace and wheat ears. He wrote the Zodiac in 1929, and proposed that the Zodiac was imported by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty when he went to the Western Ocean. He assumed the corresponding relationship between the twelve earthly branches and the twelve constellations of the ecliptic in Babylon, in which the earthly branches did not correspond to Aries. Guo Moruo believes that Oracle Bone Inscriptions's character "Wei" is "the pictograph of an ear", "If it is not an ear, it belongs to Aries", and Aries "astrology is the shape of a farmer's field". For many years, Guo Moruo's opinion has not been accepted by researchers, and the unearthed cultural relics such as Sleeping Tiger Land have also denied this inference.

"Not for the ears, for the sheep", this sentence is reminiscent of another topic.

"Three sheep open Thailand" is an auspicious language. What about Wuyang? There is a city in the south, which is the first of the five sheep. According to legend, sheep is the god of grains and will bring good luck to Guangzhou. Taiping Yu Lan quoted Pei Yuan's Guangzhou Ji in Jin Dynasty, which contained the legend of Wuyang. Until the early Qing Dynasty, the story of Wuyang was still talked about by local people. According to Qu Dajun's "Guangzhou Newspeak", there were five immortals in the ancient South China Sea, each wearing different colors of clothes and riding different colors of sheep. They came to Guangzhou and presented six ears of grain to people, hoping that there would never be a famine. Then, five immortals flew away and five sheep turned into stones. Five immortals and five sheep bring good harvest. Guangzhou, referred to as Yangcheng for short, or Guangzhou for short, all originated from the legend of Wuyang. Today, the Wuyang stone carving stands in Yuexiu Mountain Park, which is the symbol of Guangzhou.

The sheep who bless the bumper harvest of grain is also imagined as a rain prayer-a sacred object that spreads rain with the cloud of dragon cloth. This can be found in the legendary novel Liu Yichuan of the Tang Dynasty. The novel talks about rain workers in an interesting way: the dragon lady shepherds sheep. She shepherds extraordinary sheep, but she is an elf who follows the dragon to the water. According to the story, Liu Yi is a shepherdess in Lu Yu. This woman asked him to deliver letters for her, claiming that she is the daughter of the Dragon King of Dongting. Liu Yi sympathized with the misfortune of the dragon lady and asked curiously, "Since you are the dragon lady, what's the use of herding sheep?" Does God keep livestock for slaughter, just like people? "The dragon lady replied," This is not a sheep, but a rain worker. "Liu Yi asked," What is a rain worker? " Dragon lady replied, "thunder or something." "Dragon female shepherds, sheep are rain workers. This kind of imagination takes the dragon as the logical starting point, but it also seems logical.

The origin of the idiom "great achievements"

In ancient times, horses were used for fighting. The soldier galloped his horse forward, and the horse ran and sweated. The more battles are fought, the fiercer the battles are fought, and the more the horses sweat. So when you describe the meritorious military service, you say "Khan Ma". This is the origin of "great contributions", both of which refer to military exploits.

There are stories of "Battle of Han Ma" in Shi Ji Xiao Shijia and Biography of Han Xiao He Lie. Liu Bang, the emperor gaozu of Han Dynasty, rose up against Qin, and Xiao He was his reliable assistant. Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu, established the Han Dynasty, became emperor, and Xiao He became Ren Xiangguo. In terms of rewards, Xiao He is the first, and it is the first to seal Hou, with 8,000 households in the food city. Some heroes were unconvinced and said, "We fought a lot of battles, but Xiao He didn't work hard and never went to the battlefield. He just plays with his pen and makes comments. Why did the reward fall on us? " ? Liu bang replied: when hunting, dogs kill wild animals, but people tell animals where to live and where to go and let dogs kill them. All you can do is kill, but it's just a dog's job.

"Learning to be rich in five cars" and "talented people and beautiful women"

To describe a person with profound knowledge, people often like to praise him with "a man of great learning" and "a man of great talent" So how can "knowledge" be carried by "car" and "talent" be measured by "bucket"? It turns out that there are allusions in it.

"Five Cars" comes from the article "Zhuangzi Tianxia": "Hui Shi is well-informed, and his book is five cars, but his argument is wrong." It is said that Hui Shi, a man in the Warring States period, had many magical powers, but he was chaotic and impure, and his words were inappropriate. The so-called "he has five books" means that he has a rich collection of books. In ancient times before the invention of paper, books were made of bamboo slips, and each bamboo slip was engraved with words, which were strung together to form a book. Although the five-car book at that time was not equal to the five-car book now, it can also be described as a "learned man."

"Eight fights" is a metaphor used by Xie Lingyun in the Southern Dynasties to praise Cao Zhi, a Wei poet in the Three Kingdoms. He said, "There is only one stone in the world, and Cao Zijian (Cao Zhi) monopolizes eight fights. I have to fight, and the world is divided into one battle. " (See Anonymous Stone) It seems that Xie Lingyun is also quite conceited about his talent. Since then, people have used the idiom "gifted scholar and beautiful woman" to describe a person's strong writing ability. Li Shangyin, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in the poem "Alas": "Fu Fei was worried about sitting in the pavilion of knowing heaven and exhausted his eight talents." Here, the poet borrowed the allusion of "a man of great talent".

A narrow winding path

Generally, the "narrow path" is used to describe the small and winding dangerous road. The language comes from "A Brief Training of Huainan Zibing": "Like' Gorge', the name of the mountain is blocked, and the dragon and snake are flat, but they live in Li (which is an inverted hat to describe the dangerous terrain) and the sheep intestines are fat. But why do we use "sheep intestines" instead of "horse intestines" and "ox intestines" as metaphors here? There is a scientific basis for this, that is, it should be explained from the biological theory that the intestines of sheep are particularly slender than those of other animals. The length of a horse's intestine is 12 times of its body length, and that of a cow is 20 times of its body length, while that of a sheep is more slender than that of horses and cows, with a total length of 40 times of its body length, which is particularly tortuous. Therefore, it is very vivid and appropriate to use the "narrow path" as a metaphor for the narrow and rugged mountain road.

Refuse to enter

"Building a car behind closed doors" is easy to understand, but why is it related to "making soup"? The word "soup" originally meant meat. Later, vegetables were used to make soup, and soup became the general name of ordinary food. Then all the foods boiled into thick juice were called soup, such as egg soup, red bean soup and lotus seed soup. "Closing the door" began in Feng Zhi's Yunxian Miscellaneous Notes in the Tang Dynasty: "Shi Feng, a prostitute in Xuancheng, is not good at entertaining guests, and the lowest one doesn't meet each other, so she treats them with closing the door." This shows that when people don't want to meet, they treat guests with soup and refuse, but when they see soup, they get the message and leave automatically. It can be seen that treating guests as "soup" was a refusal at that time. When I say "close the door" now, I just mean to refuse, so I have to close the door and there is no soup.

Although a person has eyes, he can't help but recognize/see the sacred Mount Tai-he can't recognize VIPs/celebrities.

Many people think that Mount Tai is a famous mountain in Shandong, and some dictionaries also explain it this way. Some people are skeptical about this. As a result, many people specialized in consulting ancient books and found the answer. It turns out that Taishan is a disciple of Lu Ban. Because he was always ingenious, he angered Lu Ban and was kicked out of the class. A year later, Lu Ban saw someone selling exquisite bamboo furniture in front of the market. He never imagined that this bamboo furniture was actually made by his dismissed apprentice Taishan. Lu Ban felt ashamed and sighed, "I really don't know Mount Tai!" "This record accurately reveals the true meaning of idioms.

From all directions/paper fortune tellers

The ancients recognized the four directions with natural scenery and created figures such as southeast, northwest and so on.

Dong: The sun is in the wood, which is the rising sun. The place where the sun rises is the east.

South: The outer frame of the word "South" is the deformation of the word "Wood". "Sheep" means. That is, when vegetation receives enough sunshine in the south, branches and leaves will flourish. Therefore, the sunny place is the south.

West: The archaic meaning of the word "west" is the bird in the nest. That is, the sun goes down and the birds return to their nests. "Birds return to their nests" has become the word "West".

North: In ancient times, it was written that two people were relative. The palace faces south, with the north on the back, and the north (back) becomes the "north" of the north.

thing

Why do people only talk about buying "things" instead of selling "North and South"?

Legend has it that Zhu, a famous Neo-Confucianist in Song Dynasty, happened to meet a friend one day while walking on the road. He was as enthusiastic as a portable vegetable basket. Zhu asked, "Where are you going?" Sheng Wenru said, "Shopping." Zhu asked again, "Can't you say you buy' North and South'?" Sheng Wenru explained according to the principle that the five elements (gold, wood, water, fire and earth) are compatible with east, west, north and south: "The east belongs to wood, and the west belongs to gold. Everything that belongs to wood is gold, and baskets can hold it. But the south belongs to fire and the north belongs to water, and there is no room for fire and water in the basket. "

So later people only said that they bought "things", not "North and South".

Jiang Taigong is here, and everything is forgiven.

Legend has it that the gods were very satisfied with Jiang Taigong's deity. Jiang Taigong's wife, Comet, was the only one who didn't seal it to God. She kept nagging all day, trying to let God know about it.

One day, Jiang Taigong's wife sued for a "pillow". Taigong was greatly displeased after hearing this, and casually said, "A woman's family is always striving for fame and fortune, like a poor god." Unexpectedly, the comet jumped out of bed with joy, thinking that Taigong had made her a god, so she lobbied everywhere and was complacent. I don't know, but people hate her to death, because no matter where she goes, she will become poor, and even places that were originally rich will become poor because of her arrival.

An honest and frank person presented this feeling to squire, who was surprised. He immediately summoned the gods and wrote: "Jiang Taigong is here, and everything is forgiven". To suppress the evil forces of bad luck. From then on, in order to avoid taboo and taboo, people posted "Jiang Taigong is here, all exempted from punishment" on doors and houses, which was harmful to Du poor god. This matter has been passed down to this day.

Draw a gourd according to the model-mechanical copy

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, an academician named Gu Tao worked beside Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, drafting various announcements. After a long time, he thought he had succeeded, so he asked Song Taizu for a senior official to do it. Who knows, Song Taizu said: "When the academician drafted the proclamation, he only referred to the old version of the predecessors and only changed a few words. At best, I just drew a gourd ladle and made no contribution. " Deeply disappointed, he angrily wrote poems to laugh at himself, including two sentences: "You can laugh at Academician Hanlin Tao and paint a gourd in the New Year. Since then, "draw a gourd according to the same pattern" has been circulated as an idiom in people's oral writings. It is often compared to imitating others, without originality.

manufacture

When Qin Gui killed Yue Fei, Han Shizhong asked him, "You said Yue Fei rebelled. Where is the evidence? " Qin Gui replied: "This matter is unnecessary." Shi Zhong said, "How can we conquer the world without three words?" This is the famous three-character prison in history.

It is wrong to interpret "unnecessary" as "unnecessary and necessary". The word "Xu Mo" is often used by Song people, meaning "or" I am afraid ". For example, Liu Kezhuang's Miscellaneous Notes said: "If you want to be a scholar-bureaucrat, such as (Kou) Zhun, (Li) Gang and (Chen) generation, you don't need anyone." "Don't need someone" means "or have someone"

Qin Gui said that "this matter is unnecessary", which is translated in modern language as: "I'm afraid there is." This sentence fully exposed Qin Gui's arrogance.

A dog barked at Dong Bin.

Lv Dongbin, one of the legendary Eight Immortals, was actually a Confucian scholar who abandoned Confucianism and followed Taoism in the late Tang Dynasty.

Lv Dongbin has a fellow countryman friend named Gou Kun. If my parents are dead, I'll be alone. Lv Dongbin saw that he was having a hard time, so he became brothers with him and invited him to live in his own home. He hopes to study hard and have a bright future. Gou Jian is very grateful. He remembered Lv Dongbin's words and studied hard all day.

One day, a guest named Lin came to the house. When he saw Gou Jian's beauty and diligence, he told Lv Dongbin that he wanted to marry his sister. Lv Dongbin was afraid of missing Gou Jian's future, so he avoided it euphemistically. However, Gou Kun was very moved when he learned that, but his food and shelter depended on Lv Dongbin, and Lv Dongbin avoided talking about it. What could he do? When Lv Dongbin knew what Gou Kun meant, he said to him, "Miss Lin is smart and beautiful. I've heard a long time ago. Since you want to get married, I won't stop it, but after marriage, I will accompany my wife for three days. " I paused after listening to it, but after thinking about it, I gritted my teeth and agreed.

On the wedding day, all the ceremonies were over. When the lantern was lit, because of a promise, Gou Gou led the bride into the bridal chamber, and then ran away, leaving the bride alone in the bridal chamber. At this time, Lv Dongbin went into the new house, sat under the lamp at the desk, didn't talk, and buried himself in a book. At first, the bride liked it when she saw the groom studying so hard. Can wait until around midnight, really helpless, they had to sleep in clothes. When I woke up in the morning, my "husband" was gone. Two more nights, all the same. Miss Lin secretly shed tears, and I don't know why the groom did it.

Three nights later, Gou Gou walked into the new house. Seeing his wife's eyes full of tears, he hurried forward to make amends. The bride just bowed her head and cried and said, "Why doesn't Lang Jun sleep in the same bed for three nights, just read books, come in the dark and leave at dawn?" I was dumbfounded by this question and it took me a long time to wake up. I stamped my foot and smiled. "My brother was afraid that I was insatiable and forgot to study, so he used this method to motivate me, but he was too hard!" Then I told the bride the whole story. Since then, being the top scholar has become a senior official. So Gou Jian and his wife left Lv Dongbin with tears in their eyes and returned to their posts.

1989 years later, one day Lv Dongbin's house caught fire and everything was reduced to ashes except people. Forced by life, Lv Dongbin had to beg along the road and came to Gou Gou's house for help. After hearing this, Gou Kun said to Lv Dongbin, "Please rest assured that I have made proper arrangements." Ten days later, apart from the daily banquet, I never talked about how to help Lv Dongbin. It's still the same after a few days. Lv Dongbin became suspicious and refused to help each other. A few days later, Lv Dongbin couldn't hold on any longer, so he offered to go home, but only suggested that he enjoy it for a few more days. Lv Dongbin said angrily, Blessed are you. Say that finish and roared off.

Lv Dongbin, penniless, had to beg along the road and then go back to his hometown. On the way, someone sympathized with his situation and gave him some money, so he went home as soon as possible. But when I got to that village, I couldn't find my home. A neighbor told him that your family has built a new house and moved to the east of the village. Lv Dongbin came to the village east's new house and found his wife in mourning, touching the coffin and crying. He was shocked, hesitated for a long time, and then called his wife gently. The lady leaned forward and looked scared. She suspected it was a ghost, and she didn't believe it until Lv Dongbin explained it.

After asking about his wife, Lv Dongbin was so angry that he broke open the coffin. I saw it was full of gold and silver, and there was a letter on it. I took it out and looked at it. It says, "Gou Jian is not an ungrateful person, but a money giver and a house built. You let my wife keep the spare room, and I will make your wife cry! " Lv Dongbin woke up like a dream after watching it, deeply regretting that he didn't know a good man, and he was wrong about the tick. He said with a wry smile, "Dear brothers, you have helped me so much!" "

From then on, dogs bit Lv Dongbin-they didn't know how to love people, so it spread among the people.