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Leaf of sad illusiona (yi1 ye4 zhang4 mu4)
By Zhang Ciyun |
January 31, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MANY young children or even adults have dreamed probably once in their lives of having a magic cloak or stick that will make them invisible whenever they choose.
The Chinese idiom "yi1 ye4 zhang4 mu4" or "blocking one's view by a leaf" indicates such a dream began to haunt people aeons ago.
This idiom is based on a story about a poor scholar who lived in the State of Chu in eastern China thousands of years ago. For many years, he and his wife led a miserable life.
The poor scholar was a typical daydreamer who could not work hard in the fields or climb the social ladder. But, he believed he was destined eventually to become rich.
One day, he came across a paragraph in a book which said if one obtained the leaf under which a mantis hides itself before preying on a cicada, he would be able to become invisible by blocking his eyes with the leaf.
The scholar was overjoyed by this discovery. For the next few days, he wandered around the village searching for such a leaf. Finally, he found one.
To see whether it worked, the scholar first used the leaf to cover his left eye and asked his wife if she could see him. The wife said yes, she could.
Then, he used the leaf to cover his right eye and asked his wife the same question. Again, the wife said that she could see him.
The scholar did not intend to give up, so he tried again and again and repeatedly asked his wife the same question.
Eventually, she became fed up with the game and answered that she could no longer see him.
The scholar thought the magic leaf had begun to work. So, the next day he went to the market and stole goods from a vendor by blocking his eye with the leaf.
He was immediately arrested and taken to the local magistrate. The official asked the scholar how could he dare to take other people's property in broad daylight? The scholar told the magistrate the story about the magic leaf.
After hearing the story, the official burst into laughter and he let the scholar go unpunished.
The magistrate told others: "That poor guy must be nuts."
Today, the idiom "yi1 ye4 zhang4 mu4" is still very popular among Chinese speakers. Maybe, this is because there are still so many "nuts" around who tend to have their view of the world overshadowed by the trivial.
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