Wind and Rain Were Swept Through the Whole Town

Characters:

Pronunciation: man(3) cheng(2) feng(1) yu(3)

Explanation: A figure of speech to say something happened and was spread to every corner of a town

Tone: negative

The Story: In the Song Dynasty, there was a poet named Pan Dalin. One autumn day, the rain drops on the windows inspired him and he wanted to compose a poem. But just when he finished his first sentence, "Wind and rain in the town is close to the September Festival", the tax collectors came and disturbed him. After they left, Pan Dalin could not continue his poem because he lacked all inspiration.

Although the poem is only one sentence, it is still widely read today. Learn it and use it!

Usage Example (Pinyin): Shi(4) zhang(3) de chou(3) wen(2) man(3) cheng(2) feng(1) yu(3) le.

Usage Example (English translation): The mayor's scandal is like wind and rain that were sweeping through the whole town.

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.