Kua Fu Chasing the Sun

Characters:

Pronunciation: kua(1) fu(4) zhui(1) ri(4)

Explanation: Meaning one wants to do something beyond his/her ability or someone who tries to stretch their focus

Tone: Positive

The Story: Long, long ago there lived a giant man named Kua Fu. He was a person with extraordinary physical power. And he could walk as fast as he flew (that's right, he could fly!).

One day, he wanted to overcome the scorching sun and started to chase it with flying strides. When he was near the burning sun, he felt extremely thirsty. He couldn't stand it anymore so he rushed to the Yellow River and drank up the river. Feeling still very thirsty, he went to Weihe River and drank up the river there too. But he was not satisfied. He decided to go to the north where there was a big lake. Unfortunately, he died on the way because of thirst.

Usage Example (Pinyin): Wo(3) hen(3) pei(4) fu(2) ni(3) kua(1) fu(4) zhun(1) ri(4) de jing(1) shen(2), ke(3) shi(4) kong(3) pa(4) bu(4) neng(2) cheng(2) gong(1).

Usage Example (English translation): I do admire your spirit like Kua Fu chasing the Sun, but I am afraid it's still hard to succeed.

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.