Wolf’s heart and dog’s lungs? (Body)

Five convicts on death row were executed last Friday. The last execution was in last April, when the Ministry of Justice resumed enforcing capital punishment verdicts, which ended an unofficial moratorium on the execution of death-row inmates in 2005.

Three of the executed donated their organs. But I read that one of the donatees, who’s on top of the list, had refused to receive the kidney on knowing it was from an executed convict.

Same thing happened in 1999 after Chen Jin Xing, a death-row convict for kidnapping and killing an entertainer’s 17-year-old daughter, was executed. One donatee refused his lungs for fear that she would be like what we called 狼心狗肺(lang2 xin gou2 fei4), literally meaning to have a wolf’s heart and a dog’s lungs. She passed away soon.

I have no right to comment on this act of refusal. It’s the donatee’s call. I'm just surprised to know that this metaphor狼心狗肺should have been regarded this way by some people. It is used to describe those sinister rascals by debasing them as animals, similar to衣冠禽獸(yi guan qin shou4) I had mentioned in “Clothes make the man.” Since the wolf, 狼, sounds the same as 郎, a general title for young men, especially from a woman to call her lover as in 情郎(qing2 lang2), we sometimes say 郎心如狼(lang2 xin ru2 lang2) to depict a cold-blooded man who has mistreated his woman.

On the contrary, we use heart 心and liver肝 to call our babies as in 心肝寶貝(xin gan bao3 bei4), be it a lover or a family member such as a son or a daughter. Liver plus gall 膽 as in 肝膽相照(gan dan3 xiang zhao4)would be for friends who trust each other, fight for the same cause and even will die for each other, literally meaning to show your liver and gall to each other. It’s similar to 推心置腹(tui xin zhi4 fu4), where heart 心and belly腹 are involved.

The organ gall 膽(dan3) is used to refer to guts. 大膽(da4 dan3) means bold. If a soldier is very brave and would risk his life daringly in battle, we can use the term 一身是膽(yi4 shen shi4 dan3) to describe him.

With Chen Jin Xing’s case in 1999, different from the lady who had refused his lungs, the donatee who got Chen’s heart said he changed his mind and accepted the heart only after the doctor told him it was one’s brain, but not heart, that accounted for his behavior.

Indeed we use a lot of phrases related to the heart and the intestine to describe a person. With someone who’s kind-hearted, we’ll say he has 好心腸(hao3 xin chang2), good heart and intestine. As for someone like Mother Teresa, we’ll use 菩薩心腸(pu2 sa4 xin chang2), to have the heart and intestine of Pu-sa, a Goddess of Buddhism. On the contrary, for a heart of stone, it’s 鐵石心腸(tie3 shi2 xin chang2), a heart and intestine of iron and stone.

Last but not least, for an impressive experience that you will always remember, it’s 刻骨銘心(ke4 gu3 ming2 xin), an experience that will be inscribed on your bone (骨)and heart.

衣冠禽獸=衣冠禽兽

心肝寶貝=心肝宝贝

肝膽相照=肝胆相照

菩薩心腸=菩萨心肠

鐵石心腸=铁石心肠

刻骨銘心=刻骨铭心