When learning Chinese, try to imagine every character, phrase, and idiom like a guidebook into the cultural thought and mind of one of the world’s oldest civilizations. I tend to view Chinese proverbs as the seeds that have sprouted out of of socio-linguistic and cultural soil of the language, culture, and philosophy that are available for all to sow at their own will. They offer Chinese learners and scholars snippets into the heart, body and soul of the language as marvelous additions to thought and lifestyle based on centuries of reflection and experience.

Many proverbs that you will encounter during your Chinese language learning journey originate from some of China’s greatest philosophical minds such as Confucius, Zhuangzi, and Mencius. They are, essentially, the gateway that intrinsically approaches both native speakers and learners to engage in how life is perceived, depicted, and stemmed from the cultural elements of philosophy, literature, and guanxi (social networks).

When I read Chinese sayings that date back thousands of years into history, I often feel like I have jumped back in time through a portal into another world, teaching me how to think and reintroducing me to what philosophy is and how it may relate or compare to other philosophies around the world. I think that it will be a struggle to understand China and the Chinese language without going back in time to a setting when these certain phrases and linguistic elements were conceived daily. Philosophy, in a sense, is like a groundbreaking page-turner into understanding the complexities of human thought and how we as a species have learned from it all.

I also feel like these sayings are there to remind and teach us how to be a better person and live consciously within our environment and social interactions. They are vividly humanistic within their own philosophical understanding and placement. When I learn a new idiom and/or saying, I try to use all four senses to feel that phrase as a gateway into navigating its roots and cultural lifespan in modern language.

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To start, here are a few of my favorite classical Chinese sayings and idioms:

苦海无边，回头是岸。（朱熹）
The sea of bitterness has no bounds, turn your head to see the shore or Only Buddhist enlightenment can allow one to shed off the abyss of worldly suffering. (Zhu Xi, a Confucian writer from the Song dynasty)

螳螂捕蝉， 黄雀在后。（庄子）
The praying mantis stalks the cicada unaware of the oriole behind. (Zhuangzi)

言必言，行必果。（论语 – 子路）
Be a man/woman of your word and carry out what you do. (Said by Zilu, a Confucian disciple from the Analects of Confucius)

窃钩者诛，窃国的后。（庄子）
Steal a hook and they hang you, steal a country and they name you a prince. (Zhuangzi)

三人行，必有我师。（孔子）
Literal: Three people walk together, one will be your teacher Figurative: you have something to learn from someone (Confucius)

学而不厌，诲人不倦。（孔子）
Never tire of studying and never tire of teaching others (Confucius)

曾经沧海难为水，除却巫山不是云。（孟子）
One who has seen the world doesn’t stop at small things. (Mencius)

人必人气死人。
If you compare yourself to others, it will only just make you angry in the end.

忍得一时之气，免得百日之优。
If you remain patient in one moment of anger, you will escape 100 days of sorrow.

学如逆水行舟，不进则退。
Studying is like rowing upstream, no advancement is a drop back.

师傅领进门，修行在个人。
Teachers open the door and you enter yourself.

闭着的嘴飞不进苍蝇。
A closed mouth keeps from flies getting in.

无事不登三宝殿。
One does not go to the temple without a cause.

留得青山在，不怕没柴烧。
When there is a will, there is hope.

当着矮人某说短话。
Don’t speak of other people’s shortcomings in front of them.

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I hope you all enjoyed this post! Don’t hesitate to let me know if there are any other great proverbs worth mentioning in later posts.

Cheers to you all!