A Word is Worth a Thousand
Pieces of Gold
| Characters: |
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Pronunciation:
Yi(2) Zi(4) Qian(1)Jin(1)
Explanation:
reference to a well-composed essay or poem
with ingenious use of words
Tone:
Neutral
The Story: Lu Buwei was a very powerful
businessman at the end of the Warring States
Period.
He
also organized three thousand people to create
a book named "Lu's Annals". He was
very pleased with his great work and had it
posted on Xianyang's city gates for all the
people to see. He said that if anybody could
add or delete a word from his great work,
he himself would award the person 1000 gold
pieces for each word changed. Lu Buwei was
too powerful, and nobody had the guts to change
his seemingly great writing.
Later
people use this expression to describe a talented
work, well-composed essays or a valuable speech.
Usage
Example (Pinyin): Ta(1) de jiang(3) zuo(4)
yi(1) zi(4) qian(1) jin(1), ni(3) yi(4) dang(1)
qu(4) ting(1) ya.
Usage
Example (English translation): "A
word is worth a thousand pieces of gold"
when he gives a lecture, so you must go!
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.
