You must be quite surprised when you see this, feeling as if you've been deceived for thousands of years. The eight common sayings we usually hear are actually not what they seem. The insult 'bastard' actually originated from 'Wang Ba Duan,' which was a purely positive term. The 'eight virtues' refer to 'filial piety, brotherly obedience, loyalty, faith, propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame,' which are the fundamentals of being human. Somehow, someone immoral turned this into an insult. Without further ado, it's all in the article.
1. 'Marry a chicken, follow a chicken; marry a dog, follow a dog' originally was 'Marry a beggar, follow a beggar; marry an old man, follow an old man,' meaning that a woman should live with her husband for life, whether he is a beggar or elderly. Over time, this saying morphed into mentioning chickens and dogs.
2. 'Three cobblers with their wits combined equal Zhuge Liang' – 'cobblers' was actually a homophone for 'assistant generals' ('bǐ jiàng'), which in ancient times referred to deputy generals. The original meaning was that the combined wisdom of three deputy generals could rival Zhuge Liang. Over time, people mispronounced 'bǐ jiàng' as 'cobblers.'
3. 'No tears until seeing the coffin' originally was 'No tears until seeing a parent's coffin,' meaning one wouldn't cry until it was their parent. It did not mean that seeing any coffin would make you cry. The corrupted version 'no tears until seeing the coffin' loses this specific context, which is a bit nonsensical.
4. 'Failing to recognize gold inlaid with jade' originally was 'Failing to recognize jade from Mount Jing.' 'Jing' refers to the ancient state of Chu, and 'Jing Mountain jade' was jade discovered by craftsmen in Mount Jing.
5. 'Never give up until reaching the Yellow River' originally was 'Never give up until reaching Wujiang.' Wujiang is where Xiang Yu met his end. Changing Wujiang to the Yellow River is really hard to explain.
6. 'If you don't part with your children, you can't catch the wolf' originally was 'If you don't part with your shoes, you can't catch the wolf,' meaning that to hunt wolves, one must not fear running or wearing out their shoes. I can somewhat understand this version since in some areas like Sichuan, shoes are colloquially called 'children.' But actually using real children to trap wolves would be terrifying!
7. 'Nonsense' (literally 'dog fart') was originally 'dog skin not porous.' Dogs' skin has no sweat glands, so in the heat of summer, dogs rely on their tongues to dissipate body heat. 'Dog skin not porous' refers to this trait of dogs. 'Fart' symbolizes something filthy, so it was a metaphor for illogical things – it's a bit of a forced analogy.
8. 'Bastard' is a common folk insult. In reality, the original term was 'Wang Ba Duan.'The ancient 'Eight Virtues' refer to 'filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, trustworthiness, propriety, righteousness, integrity, and sense of shame.' These eight virtues are considered the foundation of being human; forgetting these 'Eight Virtues' is essentially forgetting the basic principles of being a person. However, later on, it was distorted into 'bastard.' (Source: Internet)
