MISCELLANEOUS.
[The proverbial philosophy of the Chinese is on a scale commensurate in every way with other branches of their voluminous literature. Most Western proverbs, maxims, household words, etc., are to be found embedded therein; sometimes expressed in strictly identical terms, at other times differing only in point of local colour. Thus the Chinese say (e.g.)―
One actor does not make a play.
Out of the wolf’s lair into the tiger’s mouth.
Prevention is better than cure.
Better a living dog than a dead lion.
As the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.
When the cat’s away, the rats play.
Better be a fowl’s beak than a bullock’s rump.
It is the unexpected which always happens.
Oxen till the fields, and rats eat the corn;
Bees make honey, and men steal it, etc., etc.
The name of these is legion. A full collection of such proverbs and sayings, gathered from the past four thousand years, would probably embrace all that is contained in Western literatures in this sense, and leave a margin to the credit of China. The specimens which are given below have been taken at random and brought together without classification. In the majority of cases, the flavour of these will, I think, be found to be peculiarly Chinese.]
Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.
Three men’s strength cannot prevail against Truth.
If you bow at all, bow low.
Pay attention to what a man is, not to what he has been.
A man thinks he knows, but a woman knows better.
If Fortune smiles,―who doesn’t? If Fortune doesn’t,―who does?
The host is happy when the guest has gone.
No medicine is as good as a middling doctor.
Great truths cannot penetrate rustic ears.
Better to jilt than be jilted: better to sin than to be sinned against.
[This was a mot of the great and unscrupulous general, Ts‘ao Ts‘ao. It is in no sense a Chinese household word.]
A bottle-nosed man may be a teetotaller, but no one will think so.
Like climbing a tree to catch a fish [Mencius].
“Forbearance” is a rule of life in a word.
With money you can move the Gods; without it, you can’t move a man.
Oblige, and you will be obliged.
Armies are maintained for years, to be used on a single day.
