Calling Thrice at the Thatched Cottage

Characters:

Pronunciation: San(1) Gu(4) Mao(2) Lu(2)

Explanation: Describing sincerity in enlisting the service of a man of talent.

The Story: Zhuge Liang, the famous statesman and military strategist during the period of the Three Kingdoms, lived in seclusion in Longzhong at the end of the Eastern Han. But he kept a close watch on the development of the affairs of the states without involving himself in them.

When Liu Bei heard that Zhuge Liang was a man with extraordinary talents, he called in person at Zhuge Liang's thatched cottage to ask him to come out from his seclusion and assist him in running the government. To test Liu Bei's sincerity, Zhuge Liang deliberately avoided him during his first two calls. When Liu Bei called on him for the third time, Zhuge Liang was finally moved by him. He decided to help Liu Bei and proposed the plan of taking the prefectures of Jing and Yi and uniting Sun Quan against Cao Cao before unifying the whole country. From then on, Zhuge Liang became Liu Bei's Principal advisor.

Usage Example (Pinyin): jing(1) guo(4) san(1) gu(4) mao(2) lu(2), wo(3) men(2) zhong(1) yu(2) qing(3) dao(4) le xiang(3) yao(4) de lao(3) shi(1).

Usage Example (English translation): Just like calling thrice at the thatched cottage, at last we have the teacher we want.

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.