learn mandarin hong kong – Classical Chinese idioms -The Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains

Mandarin Lesson

Long long ago, there lived an old man named Yugong. There were two huge mountains in front of his house and blocked his way to the outside world. One day Yugong said to his family, “Let’s move the two mountains away and clear away our road!” This idea was welcomed by his family members. “But where do we put the earth on the mountain?” asked his wife. “We can dump them in the sea.” said Yugong. So they set out to work the next day. One of the neighbors saw it and asked, “You are already an old man. How can you finish this huge project?” Yugong answered with a smile, “Although I am old, I have sons and grandsons. And they will have their sons and grandsons as time goes. If I am too old to finish it, it will be continued on by my offspring. So long as we keep at it, we’ll manage it someday.”  Yugong’s words were later heard by God. God thought, “Yugong is a man of strong wills. Let me help him!” So he sent his men to move away the two mountains.

 

Refer to do sth. with constancy and perseverance.

 

愚公移山
很久以前,有一位名叫愚公的老人,他家門口有兩座高山,家人每天進出都要繞很遠的路!有一天愚公對家人說:“我們把擋在門口的兩座大山移開吧,讓門口的路可以直通到外面的大路上,好不好?”兒子和孫子都很贊同,可是愚公的妻子卻說:“那大山的泥土搬到哪兒呢?”愚公回答:“可以搬到海裡去呀!” 第二天愚公就開始了移山的工作。這時候,別人對愚公說:“你已經這麼老了,還要去移山?就算讓你搬到死也不可能把大山移走呀!” 愚公笑著回答:“我雖然很老,但我還有兒子,兒子還會生孫子,孫子又會生兒子,我們的子孫可以一直搬下去,總有一天會把這兩座山搬走的。”後來,這件事傳到了天神的耳朵裡,天神想:“愚公真是有恆心的人!我來幫幫他吧!”天神就派神仙去把那兩座山背到別的地方去,不再擋在愚公家門口了。
 “愚公移山”這個成語比喻做事情有毅力,有恆心,不怕困難。