The Whole Country is in Joy and Jubilation

Characters:

Pronunciation: pu(3) tian(1) tong(2) qing(4)
Explanation: Describing some event that is so exciting that people in the nation celebrate it

Tone: Positive

The Story: In the Jin Dynasty, the emperor Yuan Di just had a son, and he was so happy for this that he decided to award his ministers.

The next day, every minister got a prize in turn. When it came to one minister named Yin Hongqiao, he spoke to the emperor in a very modest way: "The whole nation is happy for our prince's birth. I hardly deserve such a big prize, as I contributed nothing to him." Just at that moment, another minister joked and said: "How can you contribute to the prince's birth, it's impossible!" Then the hall was full of laughter.

Usage Example (Pinyin): Zai(4) de(2) zhi(1) bei(3) jing(1) cheng(2) wei(2) 2008 nian(2) ao(4) yun(4) yun(4) zhu(3) ban(4) cheng(2) shi(4) de shi(2) hou(4), zhong(1) guo(3) pu(3) tian(1) tong(2) qing(4)

Usage Example (English translation): At the moment Beijing was announced to be host city for 2008 Olympic, the whole country was in joy and jubilation.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.