To Overstate the Fact

Characters:

Pronunciation: Yan(2) Guo(4) Qi(2) Shi(2)

Explanation: Said of exaggerations

Tone: Neutral

The Story: Ma Su was a general of the Kingdom Shu in the Three Kingdoms period. He was a man who really seemed to have unusual abilities and loved to talk about military strategy very much. Once he suggested to the military advisor Zhuge Liang to use the strategy to win the enemy's intention. Zhuge took his advice and indeed defeated the enemy. Thus Zhuge thought highly of him. But Liu Bei, the king of Shu, warned Zhuge that Ma tended to overstate beyond his actual ability. Zhuge had a different view and didn't take Liu Bei's warning seriously.

In A.D. 228 Kingdom Shu attacked Kingdom Wei. Zhege Liang appointed Ma Su as the vanguard of the army to defend the strategic place, Jieting. Being self-reliant, Ma Su stationed his army at an unfavorable place. As a result, he was surrounded by the enemy and defeated. According to the military law, he had to be beheaded! He was killed when he was 39 years old. There goes a literary quotation "Behead Ma Su in tears", meaning Zhuge Liang felt regret for appointing Ma Su to such an important position and it was against his will to kill Ma--but he had to. Oh dear.....

Usage Example (Pinyin): Bie(2) yan(2) guo(4) qi(2) shi(2), zhe(4) bu(4) shi(4) lao(3) ban(3) de feng(1) ge(2).

Usage Example (English translation): Don't overstate the fact. It's against the boss's style.

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.