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掩耳盗铃 (yan3 er3 dao4 ling2) - Stealing a bell
By Zhang Ciyun |
August 3, 2008, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
English speakers tend to describe a person who deceives himself in an attempt to stay away from danger as burying his head in the sand like an ostrich. His counterpart in China, however, invented an easier way to achieve the same goal more than 2,000 years ago - to plug his ears while stealing a bell, hence the popular Chinese idiom y¨￡n ¨§r d¨¤o l¨ang.
The sayings originates from a story that dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC).
One day, a man walked past the gate of a big house belonging to a family that used to be rich and famous. He found the house was kind of deserted, but there was a beautiful bronze bell still hanging above the gate. He believed the bell could be sold for some good money and decided to take it home.
However, since the bell was so big, he found it impossible to take the bell home in whole by himself. So, he planned to smashed it into small pieces and then carry the fragments home in a large bag.
First, the man found a big hammer and then, with all his might, he struck the bell. The bell cracked, but its deafening sound frightened the thief. He was afraid that the sound would attract the attention of people living in the neighborhood and that he might be caught stealing the bell red-handed.
After a few moments of brain racking, the man came up with an idea. He found some cotton to plug his ears and continued to destroy the bronze bell. He believed that as long as he could not hear the bell's rumbling noise, no one else could.
By sheer chance or because no one cared about what's happening to that house any more, the thief was finally able to break the bell into pieces without any interruption.
Today, one can not only hear this idiom still being cited in daily conservation, but also find "bell swindlers" like the thief still roving almost everywhere. Besides burying their heads in the sand, the Chinese ostriches also plug their ears.
The sayings originates from a story that dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC).
One day, a man walked past the gate of a big house belonging to a family that used to be rich and famous. He found the house was kind of deserted, but there was a beautiful bronze bell still hanging above the gate. He believed the bell could be sold for some good money and decided to take it home.
However, since the bell was so big, he found it impossible to take the bell home in whole by himself. So, he planned to smashed it into small pieces and then carry the fragments home in a large bag.
First, the man found a big hammer and then, with all his might, he struck the bell. The bell cracked, but its deafening sound frightened the thief. He was afraid that the sound would attract the attention of people living in the neighborhood and that he might be caught stealing the bell red-handed.
After a few moments of brain racking, the man came up with an idea. He found some cotton to plug his ears and continued to destroy the bronze bell. He believed that as long as he could not hear the bell's rumbling noise, no one else could.
By sheer chance or because no one cared about what's happening to that house any more, the thief was finally able to break the bell into pieces without any interruption.
Today, one can not only hear this idiom still being cited in daily conservation, but also find "bell swindlers" like the thief still roving almost everywhere. Besides burying their heads in the sand, the Chinese ostriches also plug their ears.
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