Sigh before the Vast Ocean

Characters:

Pronunciation: wang(4) yang(2) xing(1) tan(4)
Explanation: A metaphor to say someone is lamenting his/her inadequacies

Tone: Neutral

The Story: In autumn, all the rivers and streams ran to the Yellow River. The Yellow River was widened and people could not see things on the other bank. He Bo was the God of the Yellow River, he was very proud of this. He thought he owned the most magnificent scenery in the world.

He floated along the river and arrived in the Bo Ocean. He was shocked as he saw it was limitless and its water seemed to reach to the sky.

He Bo realized that he was nothing. He lamented before the Bo Ocean, "I thought I was beyond compare before. Today I have learned how grand the ocean is. If I did not come here, I would have never known this. People should laugh at me for my ignorance."

Usage Example (Pinyin): Wo(3) xiang(3) chu(2) le wang(4) yang(2) xing(1) tan(4) ni (3) shen(3) me dou(1) zuo(4) bu(4) liao.

Usage Example (English translation): I guess you can do nothing but sigh before the vast ocean.

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.