Dropping the Pen and Joining
the Army
| Characters: |
 |
Pronunciation:
Tou(2) Bi(3) Cong(2) Rong(2)
Explanation:
Said of giving up paper work to start fighting
on the battlefield
The Story: Ambassador Ban Chao in the
Eastern Han Dynasty studied hard ever since
he was young, and he was determined to devote
his life to his country.
In
62 A.D., he moved with his brother Ban Gu
to the capital, Luoyang. At that time, his
family was poor. He had to copy documents
for government agencies to earn money for
his old mother. Ban Chao was very unsatisfied
with his life.
One
day, he dropped down his pen and sighed: "A
great man should be like Fu Jiezi and Zhang
Qian who made contributions in distant places.
How could I spend so much of my life with
just pens and ink?"
Soon
he threw away his pen and then joined the
army. He fought heroically and earned great
honors on the battlefield. Later he also served
as an ambassador to the Western Region and
became a famous militarist and diplomat in
history.
Usage
Example (Pinyin): Yi(1) jiu(3) san(1)
qi(1) nian(2) qi(1) yue(4), ta(1) tou(2) bi(3)
cong(2) rong(2).
Usage
Example (English translation): In July
1937, he dropped the pen and joined the army.
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.
