In the early stage of Eastern Han Dynasty (dōng hàn 东汉,25—220AD),Feng Yi (féng yì 冯异)established himself as a prestigious general,who risked his own life to fight hard for his leader—Liu Xiu (liú xiù 刘秀),the man who later became the ruler of Eastern Han Dynasty. Through a great many of wars,big or small,Feng Yi gained his fame and the trust from the leader step by step.

In the late years of the Qin Dynasty (qín cháo 秦朝,221 - 206BC), Xiang Yu ( xiàng yù 项羽) lauched a rebellion. After crossing the Zhang River (zhāng hé 漳河), Xiang Yu ordered his soldiers to sink all the boats and break their cooking pots. He distributed each soldier three days' rations and warned them that there was no way return; the only thing they could do to survive was to fight against the enemy. After nine furious war, the Qin army was finally defeated.This idiom is used to reveal one's strong determination to achieve one's goal at any cost.

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties (nán běi cháo 南北朝,420-589AD) when the State of Chen (chén guó 陈国) was facing its demise, Xu Deyan (xú dé yán 徐德言), husband of the princess, broke a bronze mirror into halves. Each of them kept a half as tokens in case they were separated. Soon afterwards, they did lose touch with each other, but the two halves of the mirror enabled them to be reunited.

This idiom is used to refer to the reunion of a couple after they lose touch or break up.

During the Western Han dynasty (xī hàn西汉), there lived in Loyang a man named Jia Yi. Jia Yi was very knowledgeable , and even the emperor engaged him as a teacher. One day, he was teaching the emperor about the proper way to govern a country. He said, "During the Ch'in dynasty, there was an evil minister named Jau Gau, who was the teacher of Hu Hai, the emperor's second son. He ofter taught Hu Hai how to destroy one's political opponents, and often talked of how to execute prisoners."

During the Warring States Period (zhàn guó 战国), there lived a politician named Su CHin who tried to get a job as a governement official, but to no avail. His parents, his sister-in-law, and his wife were all ashamed of him, but it was his sister-in-law who treated him worst. She would ofter mock him, saying that he would never amount to anything.