Dying Ashes Burn Again

Characters:

Pronunciation: si(3) hui(1) fu(4) ran(2)

Explanation: Meaning a person who once lost his power has gained the upper hand again.

Tone: Positive

The Story: During the Western Han Dynasty, an official called Han Anguo was put into jail because he broke the law. The jailer, Tian Jia, insulted him constantly. Han Anguo was very angry about this and said to him: "Who knows if the dying ashes will ever burn again?" Tian Jia replied: "Well, burn then. But if they do burn, I will just urinate to put them out."

Soon, Han Anguo was released and became an official again, and Tian Jia was afraid that Han Anguo might take revenge on him. So he fled to another place and hid himself there.

After he fled, Han Anguo said: "If Tian Jia doesn't come back, I will kill all his family."

Having no way out, Tian Jia had to come back and paid an apology in front of Han Anguo. Han joked: "Now you can have your way and piss." On hearing this, Tian Jia's face became deadly pale and kneeled down asking for mercy. Han Anguo said: "Get on your feet. It's useless to take revenge on people like you."

Wooooo..... Tian Jia was very lucky!

Usage Example (Pinyin): Ren(2) men(2) shuo(1) sen(1) lin(2) li de tuan(2) huo(3) si(3) hui(1) fu(4) ran(2) le.

Usage Example (English translation): People said the gang in the woods is coming back like dying ashes burning again.

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.