During the spring and autumn period (chūn qiū 春秋时期,770-476 BC), the state of wu launched an attack against the state of yue. The king of wu was seriously wounded and soon died. His son fu chai became the new king. Fu was determined to revenge. He drilled his army rigidly until it was a perfect fighting force. Three years later, he led his army against the state of yue and caught its king gou jian. Fu took him to the state of wu. In order to avenge his father's death, fu let him live in a shabby stone house by his father's tomb and ordered him to raise horses for him.

During the Spring and Autumn Period (春秋 chūn qiū,770-476 BC),there was a high official in the State of Jin (jìn guó 晋国). He once saw a farmer working in the field and his wife bringing his lunch to him in a very respectful manner.

In the Tang Dynasty (táng cháo 唐朝), there was a minister called Li Yifu who was always affable and smiling. But in his heart he was very sinister and ruthless. He constantly schemed against people he saw as possible rivals. He was called : The knife in the smile". This idiom, derived from the above story, means disguising a ruthless nature behind a pleasant appearance.

"Orpiment" is a kind of reddish-yellow mineral which was used in ancient times to paint over mistakes one made when writing.

During the Ch'in dynasty, there lived a man named Wang Yan, who was very eloquent. Wang Yan worked for the government, and would often travel from place to place lecturing the affairs of the country.

In the Song Dynasty (sòng cháo 宋朝), an artist called Wen Tong (wén tóng 文同) was especially fond of drawing bamboos. He planted a lot of bamboos in his garden so that he could observe the process of their growth and appearance in different seasons. He knew bamboos so well that whenever he took up the paintbrush he already had a picture in his mind, and thus he could always paint bamboos in a vivid and lively way.