The Four-Letter Words You Didn't Know You Needed to Make Sense of What's Happening and What's to Come
13 Chinese four-character idioms related to tyrannical behavior to help you make sense of the impending political dramas
I grew up learning a lot of four-letter words at school. If you think they’re foul words, you’ve jumped to the wrong conclusion. Let me first correct myself: “letters” don’t exist in the Chinese language. So technically speaking, what I’m about to share with you should be called four-character idioms.
Each of the 3,000+ “letters” (“characters,” to be precise) that a Chinese person would need to master in order to be able to read books and newspapers is actually a pictogram. As a picture is worth 1,000 words, four pictograms can make up a complete sentence with a full chapter of historical reference behind it.
Throughout China’s 5,000+ years of history, the form of government was predominantly authoritarian. Among the numerous emperors that ruled the country, tyrants abounded. This resulted in an abundance of four-character idioms that describe their despotic behavior.
Below, you will find 13 of them that came from my memory of studying Chinese history and literature in junior high. I’m amazed at how these 52 characters can summarize the nature and behavior of DJT and his cabinet picks. In fact, the meaning of these idioms describe what we’ve already seen in plain sight.
These idioms seem to have occupied a special drawer in my brain. I was able to recall them quite effortlessly even though I haven’t thought about them for decades. When I matched them with the unfolding political dramas, I suddenly felt a sense of clarity.
You know the saying “name it to tame it”? Well, in this case, naming what I see on the political theater helps me to tame the chaos in my mind. I hope this Chinese tyranny lexicon will help you in the same way.
Next to each of the Chinese idiom is an emoji representation to make understanding and learning easier. (Hopefully the emojis will give you a little chuckle too.) It is followed by a word-for-word translation, a simple English translation and, occasionally, a personal commentary. When available, I’ve included a brief history of its origin.
In my understanding, these idioms were extracted from historical texts and folklore as warnings for the danger of tyranny and as teaching materials in moral education. They are to be spoken with a certain indignant tone (to hear how they sound, listen to the voice over version — Cantonese is the language I used in recording these phrases).
昏君奸臣 🥴👑😈🦹:
Muddle-headed Emperor, Treacherous Ministers. There were too many of these throughout Chinese history for me to list. But history never stops repeating itself.
昏庸無道 🥴👎🈚☯ :
Muddle-headed and Ignorant, Ordinary; Lacking Tao (Method/Moral Compass). It describes the way a Muddle-headed Emperor and Treacherous Ministers run the country — a disregard for wisdom and rational thinking and a preponderance on chaos and terror.
酒池肉林 🍷🏊♂️🥩🌳:
Wine Pool, Meat Forest. This idiom describes how corrupt leaders engage in excess and debauchery.
Origin: Emperior Xin, the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty (1600BC-1046BC), lived a corrupt and luxurious lifestyle. He had a big pool filled with wine, surrounded by a “forest” of hung meat. He invited men and women to all-night parties, where they fooled around and chased one another, naked, drunk and bloated with meat from the “forest.”
魚肉百姓 🐟🥩💯📛 :
Fish Meat, Hundred Surnames. Fish Meat is actually a verb, meaning, to butcher or to bully with violence. Hundred Surnames is another way to say “the whole population.” The idiom means “to torture and butcher common folks.”
指鹿為馬 👉🦌🟰🐎:
Pointing at the Deer, Saying It’s a Horse.
Origin: Emperor Qin Er Shi, the second emperor of the Qin dynasty, who reigned from 210 to 207 BC, was out riding with his Prime Minister. The PM was riding a deer, and the Emperor was stupefied. “What’s this animal you’re riding?” he asked. The PM replied, “It’s a horse.” Emperor Qin decided to consult other ministers for their opinion. Some were silent, while others said it was a horse. They did this to avoid offending the cruel PM. In the end, the Emperor decided to trust the PM instead of his own eyes. This expression has found its equivalence to “gaslighting” and “revisionism” in modern-day English.
黑白不分 ⚫🤍🙅➗:
Black White, No Separation. Cannot tell black from white; unable to distinguish right from wrong. In other words, no moral compass.
焚書坑儒 🔥📖🕳️👨🎓:
Burn Books, Bury Scholars.
Origin: Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BC), known for the construction of the Great Wall, had allegedly ordered the burning of books that he regarded as subversive, and killed hundreds of scholars in an attempt to consolidate power through stamping out political dissent. He could possibly be the Father of Anti-Intellectualism.
誅鋤異己 🗡⛏👽🙋♂️:
Uproot Alien Self. To wipe out dissenters; to exterminate those who disagree.
Origin: Emperor Ming of Southern Qi dynasty (452-498) took power after a coup d’état. To prevent opposition in the palace and seal his power, he slaughtered the surviving sons and great grandsons of his uncle and former Emperor Gao, despite their kindness toward him.
殺一警百 🗡1️⃣👮💯:
Kill One, Warn a Hundred. Punishing someone to make an example for the rest.
滅絕人性🧯🈚🧑🚻:
Annihilate Completely Human Nature. This idiom describes actions that are absolutely void of empathy — a part of human nature. Do you know (of) someone who fits this description?
喪盡天良 😞🔚🌥👍:
Totally Losing Heavenly Goodness. This idiom origins from a text from the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912) — the last dynasty of ancient China — which describes wealthy and arrogant folks losing all the conscience they were born with.
不可救藥 🈚❌🆘💊:
Cannot Save with Medicine. This idiom describes a situation (or a person) that is so far gone that it is beyond cure.
Origin: Emperor Qinzong (1100-1161) of the Song Dynasty was weak and indecisive. During his reign, he failed to handle tense diplomatic situations despite various attempts. The situation was so far gone that it escalated into invasions and siege of the capital twice by armies from a neighboring state. In the end, he was captured as a prison of war, and his empire was usurped by foreign power.
屈膝求和 ⤵️🧎🙏☮️ :
Bend Knees, Beg for Peace. This is self-explanatory. Throughout the ages, it is a common practice to bend the knees or kowtow (磕頭) to bullies in power. The act of kowtow looks like this: kneeling on the floor and touching the forehead and both hands to the ground. The original meaning of this ritual was to show respect and loyalty. But over time, it has been used to sarcastically deride those who lack backbones and give into bullies.
To this point, let me share an important warning issued by
in his book, “On Tyranny”:Do not obey in advance.
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
— Timothy Snyder
Today, people don’t literally kneel or kowtow to show obedience or compliance. But the world is full of folks who admire the naked Emperor’s clothes, point at the deer and call it a horse, kiss the snake and disregard the red flags:
How do you think the cow in the above video would end up?
Bonus:
Double Idioms 義人得生 ，惡人必亡
Four-character idioms can be used in the form of couplets. Both the stand-alone and couplet forms can be spotted in demonstrations. Due to the economy of words, they make very effective slogans.
Recently, I saw this slogan written on a placard and held by the mother of a democracy activist in Hong Kong, who was sentenced to prison terms alongside 44 other activists, lawmakers, and intellectuals in Hong Kong for their fight for democracy under increasing Chinese government encroachment.
The placard reads: “The Righteous Shall Live; The Wicked Shall Perish.” In the short video below, you can see how the police took the sign and folded it. This action reflects how fearful the sitting puppet government is of free expressions, and how they use law enforcement officers to clamp down on dissenting voices. It also shows how powerful words can be in fighting back tyranny.
This ruling signals the “final nail in the coffin for the rule of law in Hong Kong,” according to Thomas Kellogg, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. It was a huge day of mourning for this (ex)-Hong Konger here, as I simultaneously mourn the imminent descent to the breakdown of the rule of law in the U.S.
I want to take a moment of silence to contemplate these words and to honor the freedom fighters who didn’t bend their knees, endured years of hardship and are slated to endure more.
At the same time, I’m reminded of another couplet, used by the Father of Modern China, Sun Yat-sen. Dr. Sun was the leader of the 1911 Revolution that ended the dynastic rule of emperors in China. He studied medicine in Hong Kong and for many years, he planned revolutionary strategies there. His goal was to free the people of China from thousands of years of oppression.
Sadly, Dr. Sun did not live long enough to see his vision turn into reality. But he left a motivational couplet in his will. It reads:
革命尚未成功，同志仍須努力
The revolution has not yet succeeded. Comrades, you must continue to fight!
Tell me: Which of the above idioms is your favorite?
Please leave your answer in the comment section below.
Thank you for spending time reading my article and being a subscriber. If you appreciate my newsletter, please click the little heart ❤️ at the top or bottom of the page. This will make it easier for people to find their way to Lily Pond and discover more of my writing on Substack. Thank you! ❤️
Fascinating!! And so powerful. I want to go back now and listen.
I listened to your excellent audio version as I wanted to hear your pronouciation of the Chinese words and it was so very interesting. There are so many chilling lessons for us in these tyrannical idioms. I appreciated getting this unusual perspective, that only you could bring us from your unique cultural standpoint. Thank you! And I will definitely look into the additional writers and resources you mentioned. Knowledge is power!