This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
Why is bragging called “blowing up an ox” (吹牛, chuīniú)? Why not “blowing up a horse”? Why is it “patting the horse’s rump” (拍马屁, flattery) and not “patting the ox’s rump”? Why is it a “scapegoat” (替罪羊, “sheep that takes the blame”) and not a “scapedog”? Of the origins of these six interesting sayings, how many do you know?
(1) 哪壶不开提哪壶: “picking up whichever kettle hasn’t boiled”
Long ago, a father and son ran a small teahouse. The county magistrate, Master Bai, was a greedy, profit-seeking man who often came to eat and drink for free. Though the father and son could not stand it and were angry, there was nothing they could do. For a while the old proprietor fell ill, and the young proprietor tended the stove and the kettles. When the old proprietor recovered, he found that the county magistrate no longer came. When he asked why, the young proprietor smiled and said: “When I made him tea, I always picked up whichever kettle hadn’t boiled!”
(2) 乱七八糟: “in a mess of sevens and eights”
The great rebellion of the princes of the imperial clan in the Western Han, known as the “Rebellion of the Seven States,” and the struggle for power within the imperial house of the Western Jin, known as the “War of the Eight Princes,” brought grievous disaster to the common people of their times and threw social life into chaos. Later people linked these two rebellions together to form the idiom 乱七八糟, “in utter disorder.”
(3) 吹牛: “blowing up an ox”
In former times, after slaughtering a sheep and draining its blood, the butcher would cut a small opening in its leg, put his mouth to it and blow hard until the whole sheep swelled up; then, with a light stroke of the knife, the skin would split open by itself. This was called blowing up a pig or blowing up a sheep. If someone claimed he could blow up an ox’s hide, he was talking big, because an ox hide is very large and extremely tough and simply cannot be blown up. So 吹牛 became a byword for boasting.
Why is it a “scapegoat” and not a “scapedog”? Of the origins of these six interesting sayings, how many do you know?
Why is it a “scapegoat” and not a “scapedog”? Of the origins of these six interesting sayings, how many do you know? (Image source: Adobe stock)
(4) 替罪羊: the scapegoat
In the Old Testament of the Bible: after Noah there was a Semite named Abraham, who had a son at the age of 99. One day Jehovah suddenly came down and told him to kill his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Isaac, not knowing he was to be the offering, followed his father up the mountain. Abraham prepared everything, and just as he laid his son on the altar and was about to use the knife, an angel flew down and held his hand, forbidding him to kill his son, and told him it was only a test from Jehovah; a ram was used as the sacrifice instead. This is the origin of the “scapegoat.”
(5) 拍马屁: “patting the horse’s rump”
There are three explanations of 拍马屁. The first is that it comes from Yuan-dynasty culture. When ordinary Mongols leading their horses met one another, they would often pat the rump of the other’s horse, feel how fat it was, and casually praise it a few times as a “fine horse,” to win the owner’s favor. Later some people, regardless of whether a horse was good or bad, strong or weak, would only say flattering things, calling even a poor horse a fine one. So people came to call flattering others “patting the horse’s rump,” mocking behavior that ignores objective reality and is devoted solely to fawning, flattering and currying favor.
The second explanation is that when a good Mongol rider met a fiery horse, he would pat its rump to make it feel comfortable, then seize the moment to leap into the saddle and gallop away.
The third is that the Mongols loved horses; when a horse was fat, its haunches were sure to bulge, so whenever they saw a fine steed, they liked to pat its rump and praise it.
(6) 不三不四: “neither three nor four”
The ancients called heaven one and earth two. So heaven and earth added together make three, and three became the representation of the whole, as in trilogy (三部曲), “examining oneself three times” (三省), “thinking three times” (三思), “when three walk together” (三人行) and so on. Four, in turn, was called “complete and thorough,” and also carried the sense of having everything as one wishes, as in the Four Heavenly Kings (四大金刚), the four great masters (四大家), the four limbs (四体), the four arts (四艺), the Four Books (四书) and so on. Hence people of improper conduct, who fall outside these “good things,” are collectively called 不三不四, “neither three nor four,” that is, disreputable.
