Unequaled under the Sky

Characters:

Pronunciation: Tian(1) Xia(4) Wu(2) Shuang(1)

Explanation: Said of somebody or something of unparalleled qualities.

The Story: Wu Ji, Lord Xinling of the state of Wei, once maneuvered the Wei army on a stolen military tally and rescued the state of zhao by defeating the army of the state of Qin. He was thus praised by people high and low of the state of Zhao.

Fearing of an inquiry by the king of Wei about the stolen military tally, he moved to the state of Zhao. After settling down there, he began to gather men of talents from all parts of the country. One time, he heard that two men named Mao Gong and Xue Gong in the state of Zhao were talented men, he sent someone to invite them. But they avoided his messenger and did not come. But Lord Xinling would not give up. He learned that Mao was hiding among a group of gamblers. So he went in person secretly to look for him and was able to make his acquaintance. Later, when he learned that Xue was hiding in the house of a wine seller, he again went alone to the wine seller and was able to make friends with Xue.

Lord Pingyuan, brother of King Huiwen of the state of Zhao, said to his wife, "In the past, I heard that your brother Lord Xinling was a man of outstanding quality unequaled under the sky. From what I have seen today, he has only an undeserved reputation and is actually a man of absurd behavior."

When his sister relayed these words to him, Lord Xinling realized that Lord Pingyuan was a man who attached no importance to talents and learning and all he cared was a man's family origin. Later, followers of Lord Pingyuan saw he was just a noble-minded man and all left him and went over to Lord Xinling.

Usage Example (Pinyin): dui(4) wo(3) lai(2) shuo(1), ta(1) tian(1) xia(4) wu(2) shuang(1).

Usage Example (English translation): She is unequal under the sky for me.

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.