Giving
Up Half Way
Characters: |
 |
Pronunciation:
ban (4) tu(2)
er(2) fei(4)
Explanation:
Meaning
lack of constancy to carry a job through its
end.
The
Story:
Long, long ago there was a scholar called Yue
Yangzi. Yue left home for a far away place to
study. But he came back after one year. His
wife, who was weaving cloth at the time, asked,
"Have you finished your studies?"
Le said, "Not yet. But I missed you very
much so I come back to see you." His wife
was very angry. She picked up a pair of scissors
and said to Yue, "The Yarns are made of
cocoons. Then the loom weaves the yarns one
by one into cloth. It takes months to weave
a piece of silk cloth. Now if I cut it with
this pair of scissors, it will waste all I have
done before. It is the same for your studies.
Knowledge is accumulated day by day and month
by month. If you give up halfway, isn't it the
same?" Yue was deeply touched when he heard
this and left home again for study. He didn't
come back again for 7 years!
Usage
Example (Pinyin): Ta(1) jing(1) chang(2)
ban(4) tu(2) er(2) fei(4), zhe(4) shi(4) ge(4)
huai(4) xi(2) guan(4).
Usage
Example (English translation): He often
gives up half way. That's a bad habit.
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.
