Rubbing Your Eyes to Look at Someone

Characters:

Pronunciation: gua(1) mu(4) xiang(1) kan(4)

Explanation: Describes seeing someone a little differently after a long separation.

Tone: neutral

The Story: In the Three Kingdoms Period, there was a famous general named Lu Meng. As he was brought up in a poor family, he read few books. One day, the king, named Sun Quan, persuaded him to study more, but Lu Meng said, "I was too busy with the battle things and had little time to do it." Sun Quan said, "Many famous militarists study hard. If they could, why can't you?"

The King's words moved Lu Meng and he began to study hard by reading military books.

Lu Su was a military governor in Wu Kingdom, he despised Lu Meng as he thought he was unschooled. But one day, he had to visit Lu Meng for a battle discussion. After a warm greeting, Lu Meng began to ask him the plan for attack and defense of the battle. Lu Su did not pay much attention and just said, "I have no idea yet." Lu Meng was not satisfied with his comment and attitude--he criticized him, then listed his own 5 strategies on the battle. After Lu Su heard these ideas, he was shocked and changed his attitude at once. He patted Lu Meng on his back with a smile, "I always thought you were just a military man, knowing nothing about strategy. Now I know you're such a knowledgeable man!"

Lu Meng laughed and said, "People should rub their eyes before looking at someone even after an absence of three days. Besides, we haven't seen each other for such a long time, so you should have expected my changes."

Usage Example (Pinyin): Ni(3) ying(1) gai(1) dui(4) ta(1) gua(1) mu(4) xiang(1) kan(4). Ta(1) yi(3) jing(1) bu(3) shi(4) yi(3) qian(2) de na(4) ge(4) ren(2) le.

Usage Example (English translation): You should rub your eyes to look at him. He is not the man before.

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.