Getting Worse Steadily
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Pronunciation:
Mei(3) Kuang(4) Yu(4) Xia(3)
Explanation:
Said of things that are getting worse
Tone:
Neutral
The
Story: Zhuang Zi was a famous representative
of the Taoism of the Warring States Period.
Once
Dong Guozi asked him where Tao was manifested,
Zhuang Zi answered: "It exists everywhere."
Dong
then asked: "Can you tell in more specific?"
Zhuang
Zi therefore started from ants and went on
to grass and straw; bricks and tile; defecation
and urination and said that these were all
where Tao existed. Dong didn't ask any more
when he saw Zhuang Zi was getting angry. Zhuang
Zi kept going on, "To satisfy what you
want and to give you a clear picture of Tao,
we can compare it to a pig dealer. The dealer
steps on a pig to figure out whether it is
fat or thin. Usually he starts from the upper
part and then moves downward to the shin.
The lower he goes, the easier for him to find
out if the pig is really fat or not since
the shin is the most difficult part to get
fat. The reason for this is called 'getting
worse steadily'. That is to say, the lower
part one goes, the easier for him to find
the fat and the lean."
Later,
people called it "getting worse steadily
when things are getting worse."
Usage
Example (Pinyin): Jing(1) ji(4) wei(1)
ji(1) hou(4), ta(1) men(2) de gong(1) si(1)
men(3) kuang(4) yu(4) xia(4).
Usage
Example (English translation): After the
economy crisis, their company was getting
worse steadily.
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.