Chinese sayings: 56 (驢唇馬嘴 / 驴唇马嘴)

驢唇馬嘴 / 驴唇马嘴

lǘ chún mǎ zuǐ

"donkey lip horse mouth"

This saying means a misfit / mismatch (to the norm / standard / logic / reasoning, to what's expected / asked for):  a donkey's lips will not / does not fit a horse's mouth

(from googling)

(traditional character version)

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比喻答非所問、兩不相合、互不連貫或前後矛盾，常用於批評說話或做事不合邏輯、不著邊際。它常用來形容人說的話或者做的舉動非常荒謬。

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(simplified character version)  

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比喻答非所问、两不相合、互不连贯或前后矛盾，常用于批评说话或做事不合逻辑、不着边际。它常用来形容人说的话或者做的举动非常荒谬。

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(google translate)

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This metaphor describes an answer that is irrelevant, contradictory, incoherent, or self-contradictory. It is often used to criticize speech or actions that are illogical or irrelevant. It is frequently used to describe someone's words or actions as utterly absurd.

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    When I first came across this saying, my immediate interpretation was that it's a description of an ugly person -- having a donkey's lips and a horse's mouth.  I was quite disappointed to find that I was wrong.

    Then, only a few weeks ago, when I trotted it out to my Tuesday group students and asked them for their interpretation, one of them said she thought it was about someone being extremely ugly!  A kindred spirit in perverse humour!

The pictographic element of the Chinese written script: 02 (Animal characters)

The characters with the most obvious pictographic element are those for animals.  Here, I give the traditional version first, then the simplified.

    (For those who might not know this:  the simplified script, officially adopted by post-1949 mainland China [The People's Republic of China], was mostly artificially created for cutting down the level of illiteracy -- yes, it's hard for Chinese people, too, to learn their own written script.  I say "mostly artificially created", because a lot of simplified characters already existed in some simplified form or other in real life down the centuries, a sort of unofficial cursive / shorthand adopted by the users.  So, the Language Reform Committee seemed to have taken a lot of their inspirations from the grassroots level -- why not?

    Back in the 1960s, I remember my second sister writing the two halves of the character for "trust / letter" 信 xìn as 亻and 文, which is not on the official list.  After all, the character 這 (zhè / this) has been simplified to 这, with the 言 half reduced to 文, so why not the 言 in 信?  An oversight on the part of the Language Reform Committee?  That's another story to come.)

    Characters for animals:  you will see that the traditional forms are closer pictographically to the animals themselves, but all credit to the Language Reform Committee for trying their best to match the spirit while reducing the number of strokes required to write the characters.

馬 / 马 mǎ / horse

魚 / 鱼 yú / fish

鳥 / 鸟 niǎo / bird

烏 / 乌 wū / crow; black (can't see the eye in the bird)

爪 / 爪 zhǎo (/ [colloquial] zhuǎ) / claw

龜 / 龟 guī / tortoise

龍 / 龙 lóng / dragon

   If you can't visualise the animals from the characters (whichever version), you can google the brush stroke renditions for a more artistically realistic version.

Chinese sayings: 42 (攀轅扣馬 / 攀辕扣马)

 

攀轅扣馬 / 攀辕扣马

pān yuán kòu mǎ

"climb shaft detain horse"

This is another saying about hospitality:  climbing onto the shaft of the cart and detaining the horse to stop the guest from leaving.  That's taking hospitality a bit far, isn't it??

    Having been brought up in the Chinese tradition, I can certainly relate to the duty of trying to make your guests feel welcomed, but not to the point of climbing onto the bonnet and withholding their car keys (the modern equivalent).  Hahahahaha.  

See also:  牽衣投轄 / 牵衣投辖

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