@Belthazar Is this enough?
<span lang="zh">坐吃山空</span>
坐吃山空
坐吃山空 (Japanese for comparison)
<span lang="zh">坐山觀虎斗</span>
坐山觀虎斗
坐山觀虎斗 (Japanese for comparison)
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Aye, guess so.
Actually, I wrote the middle character of the second one in traditional form because the simplified version doesn’t seem to exist in Japanese. Basically looks like 又 plus a simplified version of 見.
The fifth one also has a traditional form, I wrote it in simplified because that does exist.
I had to get way up in there to see the differences.
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Yep, the differences are pretty small on those. I was using 系 to demonstrate the differences the other day:
系
系
How are you doing that?
Span lang=“zh”: 車 東
Normal typing: 車 東
Pinyin IME: 车 东
Edit: I guess it won’t switch to the simplified hanzi for you.
If you look a few posts up I included the code you need to use. Copy it and paste it as plain text (Ctrl+Shift+V).
It will just render the same characters in the different language fonts.
I had that part right, I was just (unrealistically) expecting to see the simplified characters until I thought about it.
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Cool stuff here. I didn’t notice it when it was first posted.
I love these, so I am making a PDF of them for anyone print out and fold into little books. These little projects in LaTeX always take me longer than I anticipate to get perfect, but I expect that I can get it finished in a week or so.
Here is how the pages look so far:
The pagination will be different, with only the odd number page numbered. I like the furigana on the opposing pages. I don’t have a ton a Japanese fonts on my computer, but I chose one with “serifs.”
Currently, I think that the whole book will be folded out of a single sheet of letter paper, but I may make an A4 version too.
Thank you so much for compiling these!
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Hey, @Leebo, do you mind if I put a link to the PDF of these that I made of these? You compiled them, so I won’t do it without your permission. Thank you for all of your work to create such an interesting collection of expressions.
Here is the cover:
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I don’t mind, I suppose. None of it is my intellectual property.
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Thanks.
In the end, probably no one else will go through the work of folding and cutting all of the pages and assembling them into a book, so I may not even post the link.
I will post a picture of my finished little book though.
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Hey Leebo, nice work! 四字熟語 are so interesting! I might start compiling a list of my own, just as I come across the idiomatic ones.
@RoseWagsBlue I would definitely be interested in printing your booklet!
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I totally would!
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Thank you, Leebo!
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wikipedia is your friend:
from Yojijukugo - Wikipedia
By contrast, several thousands of these four-character compounds are true idioms in the sense that they have a particular meaning that may not be deducted from the literal meanings of the component words. An example of the highly idiomatic compound is:
- 海千山千 umisenyamasen ( umi ocean + sen thousand + yama mountain + sen thousand)
“Ocean-thousand, mountain-thousand” means “a sly old fox” or someone who has had all sorts of experience in life so that s/he can handle, or wiggle out of, any difficult situations through cunning alone. This meaning derives from an old saying that a snake lives in the ocean for a thousand years and in the mountains for another thousand years before it turns into a dragon. Hence a sly, worldly-wise person is referred to as one who has spent “a thousand years in the ocean and another thousand in the mountain”.
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Wow, snakes have it tough. All a carp has to do to become a dragon is swim up a waterfall.
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Surely would, and would also commit to sharing a photo of the finished product.
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I am almost done getting it just right. I will post it in a day or so.
Here is how a sample page looks now:
I decided to use the hiragana and translation on the opposing page, as we are all learning, and this is meant to be a learning tool.
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Surely each page needs, like, a photo of a kitten hanging onto a tree branch, or something? 
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