"Back to the ox playing the lute Behavior mirror"

Author: Gong Wen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: In the past, I illustrated stories of idioms. After drawing many, I felt some stories were simply created to teach people to be cunning, such as "Bing bu yan zha" (War does not shy away from deception) and "Xiao li cang dao" (A smiling face hides a knife). So, I found several dictionaries of idioms, hoping to find more joyful stories. Oh my, I discovered a big secret—I realized that many idioms were originally phrases or sentences from literature and poetry, later used as lessons or examples from certain events. Over time, these phrases became idioms, and the events became stories of idioms. That's when I got the idea to write joyful stories of idioms. I turned the idiom "pi yu bin ming" (tired of playing power games) into a restless, greedy little puppy, and "fu tang tao huo" (risking one's life) into flood relief efforts. This way, the stories are closer to how we use idioms today and to our daily lives. I also hope these new stories of idioms will be passed down, perhaps many years later, they will become part of the standard versions of idioms. Haha, just kidding, just kidding—everyone just has fun.