Skip to content

Get the extension

Chinese idioms

The stories behind the sayings people still use.

Choose a levelRead at your level

Every reading sits at the level where most of its words are taught

HSK 167 readings HSK 232 readings HSK 328 readings HSK 435 readings HSK 519 readings HSK 620 readings

20 readings

Story · 2 min audio塞翁失马The old man who lost his horseA horse runs off. The neighbours call it bad luck. The old man is not so sure.HSK 5

Story · 1 min audio守株待兔Waiting for a rabbit by the tree stumpA rabbit runs into a tree stump. A farmer gets a free dinner. Then he sits down to wait for the next one.HSK 3

Story · 1 min audio画蛇添足Drawing legs on a snakeOne cup of wine. A race to draw a snake. The fastest man has time to spare.HSK 3

Story · 3 min audio木兰从军The real story of MulanA girl at her loom. Her father’s name on every army list. Twelve years at war, and no one guesses.HSK 5

Story · 3 min audio空城计The Empty Fort Strategy: Zhuge Liang's famous bluffTwo and a half thousand soldiers. A hundred and fifty thousand at the gate. Zhuge Liang opens the doors and starts to play music.HSK 5

Story · 3 min audio草船借箭Borrowing arrows with straw boatsMake 100,000 arrows in ten days, or die. Zhuge Liang says three days will do, then does nothing for two.HSK 5

Story · 3 min audio桃花源记The Peach Blossom Spring, retold in modern ChineseA fisherman rows into a peach grove and comes out in a village that has never heard of the Han dynasty. He marks the way home. No one ever finds it again.HSK 6

Story · 2 min audio伯乐和千里马Bole and the thousand-li horse (伯乐相马)An old horse hauls a salt cart up a mountain road until a stranger climbs down, weeps, and covers it with his own coat. The horse answers with a cry that reaches the sky.HSK 6

Story · 1 min audio狐假虎威The fox and the tiger: borrowing a tiger’s powerA tiger catches a fox for lunch. The fox has one trick left: take a walk together and see who the animals run from.HSK 3

Story · 2 min audio井底之蛙The frog in the well: the frog who had never seen the seaA frog thinks its broken old well is the best place in the world. Then a sea turtle tries to come in for a visit.HSK 3

Story · 1 min audio孔融让梨Kong Rong and the pears: the boy who took the smallest oneSeven brothers, one plate of pears. The four-year-old reaches past all the big ones.HSK 3

Story · 2 min audio曹冲称象How Cao Chong weighed an elephantCao Cao is given an elephant and wants to know how heavy it is. Nobody has a scale that big, except, it turns out, a small boy with a boat.HSK 3