Think It Over Again and Again

Characters:

Pronunciation: fan(3) fu(4) tui(1) qiao(1)
Explanation: To describe someone who insists on using proper words and sentences. Or someone who thinks something over and over.

Tone: Positive

The Story: In the Tang Dynasty, there was a poet named Jia Dao. One year he went to the capital on a donkey for a national exam. The beautiful scenery on the way inspired him. He composed a poet off the cuff: "A bird rested on the tree near the pond, a monk knocked at the door in moonlight".

After finishing this, Jia Dao was not sure about using 'knocked' or 'pushed' for the second sentence. While he rode on the donkey, he recited the poem again and again while using the two words 'push' and 'knock'. Just at that moment, he met the famous poet Han Yu, and Jia Dao shared his problems of writing great poetry with Han Yu. Han recited it several times and suggested using 'knock'. Later the 2 poets became very good friends.

Usage Example (Pinyin): Jue(2) ding(4) qian(2) wo(3) xu(1) yao(4) fan(3) fu(4) tui(1) qiao(1)

Usage Example (English translation): I need to think it over again and again before making a decision.

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.