Product Description

Four-character idioms, also known as chengyu, are key components of the Chinese language and culture, many conveying important lessons and social values that stretch back over 3,000 years of Chinese history.

New features in this edition include: entries that employ both traditional and simplified Chinese characters, so that students may be comfortable with and recognise each, pinyin transliterations with tone marks, and a new introduction by the authors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #278694 in Books
• Published on:
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 4.92" h x .43" w x 9.06" l, .72 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

About the Author
Marjorie Lin is a graduate of Providence University in Taichung, Taiwan and works as a professional Chinese-English translator. Schalk Leonard is a professional Chinese-English translator. They reside in the Pacific Northwest.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
Good, but not great
By David K. Dresser
This book has a very good overview of 1000 idioms alphabetized by Pinyin. It has the 4 chineses characters for each idiom followed by the Pinyin, a literal translation as well as an explanation of what it is trying to say. One major complaint and one small one. Major: There are no tone marks on the pinyin! If you want to use a saying you need a dictionary to get the tones. Minor: the font chosen for the characters simulates natural handwriting and is difficult for a beginer to read. If they rereleased the book with these changes it would be a 4 stars.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Good, not Great
By M. Sullivan
First, let me start off by saying that I like this book. The worst that will happen is that you'll learn more Chinese.

However, the book does have some flaws. Primarily, that the characters are not standard typeface, but more handwritten, is a problem for newcomers to Chinese. Second, the Pinyin does not include tone marks. It's definitely better than not having them, but it's limiting.

The main problem with this book is the choice of idioms. There are 1000, but they're not all in use or even recognized by native Chinese. I had a teacher (from China), one of the most educated people I've ever met, and she didn't recognize a good portion of these idioms. Furthermore, the book does not include the stories behind the idioms. (Most idioms have some Chinese folk tale associated with them, cementing their meaning in Chinese culture.)

For the advanced: yes, these are all Chengyus, in four character format. Some of the meanings are evident from the component characters. Some are not and would really benefit from the backstory. For example, "bu san bu si" doesn't immediately tell you why it means "neither fish nor fowl; a shady person; incongruous."

(Amazon apparently doesn't allow for Chinese characters in reviews.)

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
comprehensive, but not great
By K. Ericson
I agree with the previous reviewer - if this book had tone marks with the PinYin, it would rate a full star higher! The Chinese is a little difficult to read (I'm just starting out learning Chinese) due to the typesetting fint used. I like the organization - based upon the first Chinese character in the phrase - you can find related phrases together.

I have no trouble recemmending this book, but could be much more enthusiastic if there were a couple printing changes made.