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Chinese Idiom
梁上君子 ( liáng shàng jūn zǐ )
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In the Eastern Han Dynasty (dōng hàn 东汉), there was a man named Chen Shi (chén shí 陈寔) . One day, a thief slipped into his livingroom. Hiding behind the beam, the thief waited for Chen Shi to fall asleep. Chen Shi, finding the thief, called his family together, saying, "To be a upright man one must have aspirations. Men are not born evil. But if one gets used to doing evil things, it will be hard to reform. The gentleman above the beam is such a man." The thief, hearing this, hurriedly jumped down and knelt on the ground to beg forgiveness.This idiom is used to refer to a thief.

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李代桃僵(lǐ dài táo jiāng )
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This idiom comes from a old folk song. The last two stanzas go like this:

One family has five brothers, all serving to a minister as attendants. Every five days, they go back home for a reunion, decorating their horses and garments with shining gold. They vie with each other for ostentation and extravagance, attracting crowds of onlookers along the road.

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临渴掘井 (lín kě jué jǐng )
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During the Spring and Autumn Period (春秋 chūn qiū,770 - 221BC),the ruler of the state of Lu(lú guó 鲁国) was Lu Zhaogong (lú zhāo gōng 鲁昭公),a man without the ability to jude the right from wrong. He preferred to listen to the sweet words rather than the opinions which might seemd pretty harsh but quite ture.

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鲁侯养鸟(lǔ hóu yǎng niǎo)
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A seabird was once seen perching on the city gate of the capital of Lu. Nobody had seen such a bird before, so they called it the "holy bird." The King of Lu ordered his men to capture the seabird alive. They kept it in a golden cage and brought it to the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
The King treated the seabird as though it were his guest of honour. Each day there would be banquets where dainties and delicacies of every kind would be offered to the seabird. Even the King's musicians had to perform for the seabird's sole amusement.

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洛阳纸贵 (luò yáng zhi guì)
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In the Jin Dynasty (jìn dài 265-420AD) there was a famous writer whose name was Zuo Si (zuǒ sī 左思) who, however, was very naughty and did not like to study when he was a small kid. His father often got angry, and yet young Zuo Si was as naughty as ever and would not study hard.

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鹿死谁手 (lù sǐ shuí shǒu)
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altDuring the Eastern Chin dynasty (dōng jìn 东晋), there lived a merchant named Shr Le. When the area in which he lived was struck by natural disaster, Shr Le was forced out of business. Unable to find work, he had nothing to eat, and when he was so hungry that he could stand it no longer, he sold himself as a slave to a wealthy family.

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