Valentine & 月下老人 (chop suey)

It’s Valentine’s Day in two days. Once I read about Valentine’s story about how he violated the Roman emperor’s forbidding law and helped soldiers to get married. For Chinese, we think our marriage is all up to月下老人(yue4 xia4 lao3 ren2), the man under the moon.

Legend has it that one night in Tang Dynasty a man named 韋固(wei3 gu4) met an old man, who was sitting under the moon leaning on a bag and reading a book. Out of curiosity Wei asked the old man what he was reading. “A book of marriage with the list of the couples all over the world,” answered him. “What’s inside the bag?” “They are red cords used to tie the feet of the couples.” That’s why we say千里姻緣一線牽(qian li3 yin yuan2 yi2 xian4 qian) , no matter how different or how far away two people are, once their feet are tied by the red cord, they will marry.

Some people are enthusiastic about fixing up for their friends. We call this act 牽紅線(qian hong2 xian4) , fixing up the red cord. And we usually call matchmakers 紅娘(hong2 niang), which comes from another story 西廂記(xi xiang ji4)Romance of the West Chamber. And brides wore red in traditional Chinese wedding. It seems that red is the color for marriage for Chinese.  

I just read a joke from the net about Valentine’s Day. I’d like to share it with you because it’s not only funny but you can learn some Chinese from it.

A boy asked a girl what kind of flower 花(hua) she’d like to have on Valentine’s Day. Very coyly the girl answered, “I’d like two kinds of floweres. 有錢花(you2 qian2 hua) and 隨便花(sui2 bian4 hua).”

“你真美(ni3 zhen mei3)! You’re so beautiful!” answered the boy.

“我哪兒美(wuo3 na3 er2 mei3)? Where exactly do you think I’m beautiful?” the girl asked.

“想的美(xiang3 de mei3)! Your thought is beautiful. ”

You get the point of the joke? For 花, flower, if you use it in the phrase 花錢(hua qian2), it means to spend money. When the girl answered the question as to what kind of flower she wanted, she distorted it into “spending money.” That’s why she said, 有錢花to have money to spend; 隨便花, to have so much money that you can spend it to your heart’s content. As to 想的美, it literally means “You’re thinking too beautifully,” with the denotation “No way!” “Don’t even think about it!”

I think I’d better end this writing with what we usually say on Valentine’s Day. That is, to wish all the lovers in the world a happy ending for their relationship—to marry and become family members to each other. 願天下有情人終成眷屬(yuan4 tian xia4 you3 qing2 ren2 zhong cheng2 juan shu3)

韋固=韦固
千里姻緣一線牽=千里姻缘一线牵
千: a thousand
里: a unit of length equal to half kilometer
姻緣: marriage
一線: a cord
牽: fix, tie
紅娘=红娘
西廂記=西厢记
有錢花=有钱花
隨便=随便
願天下有情人終成眷屬=愿天下有情人终成眷属
願: wish
天下: all over the world
有情人: people with love/lover
終: finally
成: become, turn to
眷屬: family member