108. The Golden Ball (La Bola De Oro) Once upon a time there was a married couple who had a son, and they were so, so poor that they could not [afford to] feed him. One evening, while the child was asleep, the husband and the wife decided that, since they were starving [to death]…
Cǎo chuán jiè jiàn (草船借箭 – 草船借箭)
草船借箭 (Cǎo chuán jiè jiàn) Lit. using straw boats to borrow arrows (from Romance of The Three Kingdoms). Fig. to use others’ manpower and resources for one’s own ends. Story: When [Zhou] Yu saw that Zhuge Liang had exceptional talents, he was very envious [of him]. One day, Zhou Yu invited Zhuge Liang over to…
107. Death’s Friend
107. The Friend of Death (El Amigo de La Muerte) Once upon a time there was a man who had put all of his efforts into being a just man. He did not feel comfortable with anything for which he disagreed with, and whenever he had to opine on some matter, he judged it as…
Cáo chōng chēng xiàng (曹衝稱象 – 曹冲称象)
曹衝稱象 (Cáo chōng chēng xiàng) Lit. Cao Chong weighing an elephant. Cao Chong was intelligent from a young age, where at five or six his intelligence was comparable to that of an adult. Once, Sun Quan of Eastern Wu gifted Cao Cao an elephant, so Cao Cao led his civil and military officials and his…
106. Moneylenders Have No Souls
106. Moneylenders Have No Souls (Los Prestamistas No Tienen Alma) One day, a knight died and when he went up to heaven he wanted to see an uncle of his who had died a year ago. He got to heaven, knocked on a door and out came a man in a white blouse to open…
Cāng hǎi sāng tián (滄海桑田 – 沧海桑田)
滄海桑田 (Cāng hǎi sāng tián) (1) lit. the blue sea turned into mulberry fields (idiom) (2) fig. the transformations of the world Explanation: it indicates the sea transforming into a mulberry field, and the mulberry field again transforming back into a sea. This is a metaphor for the impermanence of life. Azure sea (滄海): great…
105. The Tailor And The Cobbler
105. The Tailor And The Cobbler (El Sastre y El Zapatero) One day, two men who were going in the same direction met on a road. One was a tailor and the other a cobbler, and both had decided to travel the world to earn a better living. In view of this, after greeting each…
Cái gāo bā dǒu (才高八斗 – 才高八斗)
才高八斗 (Cái gāo bā dǒu) Explanation: This is a metaphor for [someone] being extremely talented. Source: Southern Song – Anonymous author, in “釋常談·八斗之才 (Shichang Tan – Ba Dou Zhi Cai)”: A great literati, to the tune of eight-dǒu talent. Xie Lingyun said: “The world has one ‘dàn’, Cao Zijian alone had taken eight dǒu, I…
104. The Bandit Brothers
104. The Bandit Brothers (Los Hermanos Bandidos) One upon a time, there was a house in a mountain village where two brothers lived with their mother. The brothers were called Antonio and Juan. They felt so close that they decided to sign an agreement in which they promised to never get separated from one another….
Bù yuǎn qiān lǐ (不遠千里 – 不远千里)
不遠千里 (Bù yuǎn qiān lǐ) (1) To make light of traveling a thousand li’s(2) To go to the trouble of traveling a long distance Source: “Mencius – King Hui of Liang, Upper Book”. Mencius met King Hui of Liang. The king said: “Sir! You minded not the long distance (thousand li‘s) in coming here, surely…