桃园结义
The Oath in the Peach Garden
Name: ________________ Date: ________
“黄巾军来了！谁想去打他们，就来这里！”涿县的城门上有一张很大的纸，上面写着这几句话。很多人站在前面看。
那时候，汉朝已经快不行了。黄巾军到处打人，百姓的生活非常难。
看的人里面，有一个二十八岁的年轻人，叫刘备。他的耳朵特别大，手特别长，站着的时候，手能到膝盖。几百年前，他家和皇帝是一家人；可是到了他，家里已经没有钱了，只能和妈妈一起卖草鞋。刘备看着那张纸，看了很久，一直在叹气。
“是个男人，就去为国家做事，在这里叹气干什么！”刘备身后突然有人大声说。刘备一看，这个人个子很高，眼睛很大，脸上都是胡子，声音像打雷一样。
这个人叫张飞，在这里卖酒、卖肉，家里很有钱。刘备说：“我也想打黄巾军，让百姓过得好一点。可是我没有钱，也没有人，所以才叹气。”张飞说：“我有钱啊！我们一起找人，一起去打黄巾军，怎么样？”刘备听了，非常高兴。两个人就走进旁边的一家小店喝酒。
他们正喝着，门口进来一个很高的男人。他一坐下就说：“快拿酒来！我喝完还要去打黄巾军！”刘备抬头一看：这个人比张飞还高，脸是红色的，黑色的胡子很长很长。
刘备请他过来一起坐。那个人说：“我叫关羽。我家那里有个坏人，因为有钱，天天打别人，我就杀了他。这五六年，我一直在外面，不能回家。现在听说这里要人打黄巾军，我就来了。”
三个人越说越高兴。张飞说：“我家后面有个桃园，现在桃花开得很好看。明天，我们就在桃园里做兄弟！”刘备和关羽一起说：“好！”
第二天，桃园里到处都是桃花。三个人对着老天，大声说：“我们三个人不是一家人，可是从今天起，就是兄弟了。我们要一起帮国家，帮百姓。不求同年同月同日生，只愿同年同月同日死！”意思是：我们不是同一天出生的，可是希望在同一天死。不管发生什么，谁也不会离开谁。
三个人里，刘备最大，是大哥；关羽第二，是二哥；张飞最小，是三弟。那天，他们找来了三百多个年轻人，大家在桃园里一起喝酒，一直喝到晚上。
后来，他们又请人做了武器。刘备有两把剑。关羽的大刀叫青龙偃月刀。这把刀有八十二斤重。张飞的武器叫丈八蛇矛，很长很长。
就这样，三兄弟带着几百个人出发了。可是那时候，到处都有手下几万人的大人物。只有几百个人的三兄弟，能走多远呢？
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 张 | zhāng | classifier for flat objects (paper, tables, beds, faces) |
| 纸 | zhǐ | paper |
| 句 | jù | sentence |
| 不行 | bùxíng | won't do; not allowed |
| 到处 | dàochù | everywhere; all over |
| 生活 | shēnghuó | life; to live |
| 难 | nán | difficult; hard |
| 耳朵 | ěrduo | ear |
| 可是 | kěshì | but; however |
| 只能 | zhǐnéng | can only; have no choice but to |
| 久 | jiǔ | long (time) |
| 一直 | yìzhí | all along; continuously; straight (ahead) |
Lesson plan: 45 minutes (for the teacher)
HSK 3 · The Oath in the Peach Garden. By the end, students can read it aloud, say what it is about and use 张 and 纸 in sentences of their own.
Warm-up 5 min
Write 桃园结义 on the board. Ask what the class thinks it is about, then give the English: “The Oath in the Peach Garden”.
Key words 10 min
Teach 张 (zhāng, classifier for flat objects (paper, tables, beds, faces)), 纸 (zhǐ, paper), 句 (jù, sentence), 不行 (bùxíng, won't do; not allowed), 到处 (dàochù, everywhere; all over), 生活 (shēnghuó, life; to live). Say each one, the class says it back, then ask for its meaning with the word covered. The rest are in the handout’s table.
Listen 10 min
Play it read aloud from mandarinthewild.com/library/read/oath-in-the-peach-garden-three-kingdoms-easy-chinese-1: once with the text face down, once reading along. Students tap any word there for its meaning.
Read and check 10 min
Students read it alone, then tell a partner in two sentences of Chinese what it says.
Use it 10 min
In pairs, each student writes two sentences of their own, one with 张 and one with 纸, and reads one to the class.
Homework. Students read it again at home and Review its words. Put it in a free class (mandarinthewild.com/teachers/class) and you see who read it.
English (for the teacher)
"The Yellow Turbans are coming! Whoever wants to fight them, come here!" On the city gate of Zhuo County hung a huge sheet of paper with these words on it. A crowd stood in front of it, reading.
By then the Han was close to falling apart. The Yellow Turbans were attacking people everywhere, and life for ordinary people was very hard.
Among the readers was a young man of twenty-eight called Liu Bei. His ears were unusually big and his arms unusually long: standing up, his hands reached his knees. Hundreds of years earlier his family had been the emperor's own family; but by his time the money was gone, and he made a living selling straw sandals with his mother. Liu Bei looked at that sheet of paper for a long time, sighing all the while.
"If you're a man, go and do something for your country. What are you sighing here for?" Someone behind Liu Bei suddenly said it loudly. Liu Bei turned to look: the man was very tall, with big eyes, a face covered in whiskers, and a voice like thunder.
His name was Zhang Fei; he sold wine and meat there, and his family had plenty of money. Liu Bei said: "I want to fight the Yellow Turbans too, so people can live a little better. But I have no money and no men. That's why I was sighing." Zhang Fei said: "I've got money! Let's find men together and go and fight the Yellow Turbans together. What do you say?" Liu Bei was delighted to hear it. So the two of them went into a little inn nearby to drink.
While they were drinking, a very tall man came in through the door. The moment he sat down he said: "Bring me wine, quick! When I've drunk it I'm off to fight the Yellow Turbans!" Liu Bei looked up: this man was even taller than Zhang Fei, with a red face and a long, long black beard.
Liu Bei invited him over to sit with them. The man said: "My name is Guan Yu. Where I come from there was a bad man who, because he was rich, beat other people every day, so I killed him. For five or six years now I've been on the road and couldn't go home. Now I hear they want men here to fight the Yellow Turbans, so I've come."
The more the three of them talked, the happier they were. Zhang Fei said: "Behind my house there's a peach garden, and the peach blossom is lovely right now. Tomorrow, in the peach garden, let's become brothers!" Liu Bei and Guan Yu said together: "Yes!"
The next day there was peach blossom everywhere in the garden. The three men faced Heaven and said loudly: "We three are not one family, but from today we are brothers. Together we will help our country and help its people. We do not ask to be born in the same year, the same month, on the same day; we only wish to die in the same year, the same month, on the same day!" That means: we weren't born on the same day, but we hope to die on the same day. Whatever happens, none of us will ever leave the others.
Of the three, Liu Bei was the oldest, so he was the eldest brother; Guan Yu came second, the second brother; Zhang Fei was the youngest, the third brother. That day they gathered more than three hundred young men, and everyone drank together in the peach garden until night.
After that they had weapons made. Liu Bei had a pair of swords. Guan Yu's great blade was called the Green Dragon Crescent Blade. It weighed eighty-two jin. Zhang Fei's weapon was called the Serpent Spear, and it was very, very long.
And so the three brothers set out with a few hundred men. But in those days there were great lords everywhere with tens of thousands of men under them. How far could three brothers with only a few hundred men go?