Unable to Break Away from the Conventions

Characters:

Pronunciation: Wei(4) Neng(2) Mian(3) Su(2)

Explanation: Meaning that one has to follow the worldly ways.

The Story: The famous scholar Ruan Xian of the early Jin Dynasty and his uncle Ruan Ji were both broad-minded and unconventional men of letters. They both lived on the southern side of a road while the other members of the Ruan clan lived on the northern side. All of the people living on the northern side were rich and those on the southern side were poor.

There was a tradition of sunning clothes on the seventh day of the seventh month-July. On that day one year, when families on the northern side all put their silks and satins in the sun in a big display of colour, Ruan Xian sunned his worn short pants at the end of a bamboo pole. People were puzzled and asked him why. Ruan Xian answered: "Because I am unable to break away from the conventions, I've got to do this for appearance sake."

Usage Example (Pinyin): Wo(3) ye(3) wei(4) neng(2) mian(3) su(2), gei(3) ta(1) mai(3) le yi(1) ge(4) zhong(1) guo(3) jie(2).

Usage Example (English translation): I am unable to break away from the conventions, so I bought a traditional Chinese knotted gift to her.

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.