Unequaled
under the Sky
| Characters: |
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Pronunciation:
Tian(1) Xia(4) Wu(2) Shuang(1)
Explanation:
Said of somebody or something of unparalleled
qualities.
The Story: Wu Ji, Lord Xinling of the
state of Wei, once maneuvered the Wei army
on a stolen military tally and rescued the
state of Zhao by defeating the army of the
state of Qin. He was thus praised by people
high and low of the state of Zhao.
Fearing
of an inquiry by the king of Wei about the
stolen military tally, he moved to the state
of Zhao. After settling down there, he began
to gather men of talents from all parts of
the country. One time, he heard that two men
named Mao Gong and Xue Gong in the state of
Zhao were talented men, he sent someone to
invite them. But they avoided his messenger
and did not come. But Lord Xinling would not
give up. He learned that Mao was hiding among
a group of gamblers. So he went in person
secretly to look for him and was able to make
his acquaintance. Later, when he learned that
Xue was hiding in the house of a wine seller,
he again went alone to the wine seller and
was able to make friends with Xue.
Lord
Pingyuan, brother of King Huiwen of the state
of Zhao, said to his wife, "In the past,
I heard that your brother Lord Xinling was
a man of outstanding quality unequaled under
the sky. From what I have seen today, he has
only an undeserved reputation and is actually
a man of absurd behavior."
When
his sister relayed these words to him, Lord
Xinling realized that Lord Pingyuan was a
man who attached no importance to talents
and learning and all he cared was a man's
family origin. Later, followers of Lord Pingyuan
saw he was just a noble-minded man and all
left him and went over to Lord Xinling.
Usage
Example (Pinyin): Dui(4) wo(3) lai(2)
shuo(1), ta(1) tian(1) xia(4) wu(2) shuang(1)
Usage
Example (English translation): She is
unequal under the sky for me.
Note:
The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4
spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create
those above where after each syllable we tell
you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond
to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to
complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms
newsletter with a good offline study program.