Swallowing Raw and Skinning Alive

Characters:

Pronunciation: Sheng(1) Tun(1) Huo(2) Bao(1)

Explanation: Meaning copying the views and writings of others.

The Story: Zhang Huaiqing, the constable of Zaoqiang Country (today's Jixian, Heibei Province) in the Tang Dynasty was a man who had neither learning nor skills. But he had a habit of copying poems from others and passing himself off as a refined scholar.

Once, Minister Li Yifu at the imperial court wrote a poem which began with these two lines: "Carving the moon into a fan for singer; Sewing the clouds into a dress for dancer." There were five characters in each line. Zhang Huaiqing liked it and copied the poem and mechanically added two more characters before each line. The two lines became: "With emotion, carving the moon into a fan for singer; Out of nature, sewing the clouds into a dress for dancer." When people read the poem Zhang Huaiqing had "written", they all split their sides with laughter because the added characters destroyed the beauty of the original one.

As Zhang often copied the works of the famous poet Zhang Changling and Guo Zhengyi of the time, people ridiculed him as "skinning Zhang Changling alive and swallowing Guo Zhengyi raw".

Usage Example (Pinyin): yuan(2) shi(3) ren(2) guo(4) zhe sheng(1) tun(1) huo(2) bo(1) de sheng(1) huo(2)

Usage Example (English translation): The primitive had a 'swallow raw and skinning alive' life.

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.