Waiting by a Tree for a Rabbit to Turn up

Characters:

Pronunciation: shou(3) zhu(1) dai(4) tu(4)

Explanation: Meaning someone wants to gain something without paying anything for it

Tone: Negative

The Story: Once upon a time, there was a farmer in the Song State. When he was working in a field, he saw a rabbit running past him, then it broke its neck on a tree and died. The farmer grabbed the dead rabbit and made a stew. it was delicious!

After that, the farmer didn't want to work on his field anymore. He just sat next to that same tree and waited for a rabbit to smash itself and die! Unfortunately, there were no more rabbits afterwards and the farmer's field grew nothing but weeds.

Usage Example (Pinyin): Ni(3) xian(4) zai(4) jiu(4) shi(4) shou(3) zhu(1) dai(4) tu(4), shen(3) mo dou(1) de(2) bu dao(4).

Usage Example (English translation): What you are doing now is just waiting by a tree for a rabbit to turn up--you will get nothing!

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.