S7E04 | Mirror Mirror on the Wall
Saying: “Front Yard as Busy as a Marketplace”
Pinyin: Mén Tíng Ruò Shì
Chinese: 门庭若市
This time we wander back to the 4th century BC to the State of Qi under its great King Wei. There was a handsome resident of Qi named Zou Ji who had a thing about a certain Mr. Xu. From Zou Ji's obsessive concern about his good looks compared to Mr. Xu, it ultimately leads to a fateful meeting with the King of Qi. And from this meeting and the results that followed we get the Chinese Saying 门庭若市 Mén Tíng Ruò Shì. Why was the King of Wei's palace courtyard compared to a crowded marketplace? Listen to the amusing story behind this chengyu and find out.
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Terms in Episode
| Pinyin/Term | Chinese | English/Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Chéngyǔ | 成语 | A Chinese Saying or idiom |
| Luó Guànzhōng | 罗贯中 | 1330-1400 (or 1280-1360) Ming-era writer known for his epic novel "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" |
| Táo Yuán Jíe Yì | 桃园结义 | The Peach Orchard Pact of Brotherhood |
| Táo Yuán | 桃源 | A peach orchard |
| Jié | 结 | a knot |
| Yì | 义 | righteous, justice, morality |
| Jiéyì | 结义 | to become sworn brothers |
| Hàn Dynasty | 汉朝 | The Han Dynasty 202 BC to 220 AD |
| Jùlù | 巨鹿 | A county of Xingtai City in the south of Hebei province |
| Eastern Hàn | 东汉 | That part of the Han Dynasty that lasted 25 to 220 AD when the capital was located in Luoyang and later Xuchang |
| Yōuzhōu | 幽州 | One of the twelve ancient provinces, located where Liaoning and northernmost Hebei is today |
| Zhuó County | 涿县 | A once ancient prefecture located just north of Beijing |
| Bǎodìng, Hebei | 河北保定 | is a prefecture-level city in central Hebei province, approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) southwest of Beijing. |
| Liú Bèi | 刘备 | 161-223, a warlord of the Eastern Han who went on to found the State of Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms |
| Zhāng Fēi | 张飞 | Died in 221 AD, a military general serving under Liu Bei |
| Guān Yǔ | 关羽 | Died in 220 AD, a military general serving under Liu Bei |
| Hédōng | 河东 | A tiown in southern Zhuolu Couynty in northwest Hebei, 57 miles west of Beijing |
| Jiānghú | 江湖 | a term that generally refers to the milieu, environment, or sub-community in which many Chinese wuxia stories are set, where feuding martial arts clans; a secret and possibly criminal underworld; a general sense of the "mythic world" where fantastical stories happen; or some combination thereof. |
| Sānguó Zhì | 三国志 | The Records of The Three Kingdoms, |
