Having
Secret Evil Intentions
Characters: |
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Pronunciation:
Bao(1) Cang(2) Huo(4) Xin(1)
Explanation:
Meaning one does something with evil intent.
The
Story: In the Spring and Autumn Period,
the state of Zheng was a small and weak country.
So the country wanted to establish friendly
relations with the state of Chu through the
marriage between the daughter of Gongsun Duan
(a high official of Zheng) and the Chu prince
Wei.
In
the year 541 B.C., Prince Wei intended to
take the opportunity of wedding in the state
of Zheng to launch a surprise attack on Zheng.
When Zi Chan, the official in charge of political
affairs in Zheng, saw that the Chu people
did not have good intentions, he sent Zi Yu
to them and told them, "The capital city
of Zheng is too small to hold so many of your
people. The wedding will be held outside the
city." When the Chu people insisted on
marching into the city, Zi Yu said to them,
"We thought with a marriage between Zheng
and Chu we could obtain the protection of
a big country to keep our country secure.
We now find that you have secret evil intentions
and want to launch a secret attack on us."
When
Prince Wei saw that the state of Zheng was
on his guard, he abandoned his plan for a
surprise attack and promised to go into the
Zheng capital without carrying arms.
Usage
Example (Pinyin): Ta(1) shi(4) ge bao(1)
cang(2) huo(4) xin(1) de jia(1) huo(4).
Usage
Example (English translation): He is a
guy having secret evil intentions.
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.