Reading is Always Beneficial

Characters:

Pronunciation: kai(1) juan(4) you(3) yi(4)

Explanation: Describes that whenever you read a book, it can bring you meaningful thoughts and ideas

Tone: Positive

The Story: In the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the emperor Taizong appointed his scholars to edit an encyclopedia named "Tai Ping Yu Lan". It contained 1,000 chapters in total and was classified into 55 sections. The content was very abundant and covered many subjects. Taizong was interested in it very much and every day he would read 2 or 3 chapters.

One of his ministers said one day: "Your Majesty, you are busy with handling thousands of things each day, but you still read this book--it is too toilsome for you." Then Taizong said: "I earn the real rewards from reading it, whenever I open it I will get something profitable from it. I will not feel tired to read it at all."

Yes! Reading is great, don't you think? Read as many books about China and educate yourself about this rapidly changing nation and people.

Usage Example (Pinyin): Wo(3) de yu(3) wen(2) lao(3) shi(1) zong(3) rang(4) wo(3) du(2) shu(1), ta(1) shuo(1) kai(1) juan(4) you(3) yi(4).

Usage Example (English translation): My Chinese teacher always encourages me to read, she says reading is always beneficial.

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.