Seven things after you open the door (I) (proverb)

What are the seven things after you open the door and start the day? For the ancient Chinese, it would be 柴(chai2)、米(mi3)、油(you2)、鹽yan2)、醬(jiang4)、醋(cu4)、茶(cha2);namely, firewood, rice, oil, salt, bean sauce, vinegar and tea. We call them 開門七件事(kai men2 qi jian4 shi4),the seven things after you open the door and start the day.

These seven things were daily life necessities. Though trivial, they were what the general populaces toiled themselves around for. Though the first item has been replaced in the modern society, the seven are combined together to mean our necessities in life.

柴 firewood: Though mostly it has been replaced by gas oven today, it is still in frequent use in our daily language. For example, when referring to those who are suffering from a famine in Samaria, we will use the term骨瘦如柴(gu3 shou4 ru2 chai2),as thin as a piece of firewood, to describe them.

When a man and a woman, both horny, hit it off, we’ll say they are like 乾柴烈火(gan chai2 lie4 huo3),dry firewood encountering raging flames. To the arbitrary and rude people who are trying to force others, we have a term橫柴入灶(heng2 chai2 ru4 zao4). 橫柴means to pose a firewood across; 入灶 , to put the firewood into a stove. When putting a piece of firewood into the oven, you should send one end after the other, instead of putting it across. If you try in the latter way, you are either arbitrary or too inflexible to change to cope with the changing situation.


米 rice : Generally people in the south of Yellow River take rice as their staple food (while the north, noodles.) To those who idle their lives away, contributing nothing to the society, we’ll scorn them as 米蟲(mi3 chong2), a rice bug, which would be found in the rice if it is not carefully stored. Rice turns to 飯( fan4) when cooked as in 吃飯 (chi fan4), having a meal. To those who are good at nothing but eating, we’ll call them 飯桶(fan4 tong3), a cooked rice bucket, which carries the same scorn as 米蟲.


These days to “debt” or not to “debt” has been the question for the Obama government. Those who want to raise the debt ceiling might say it’s hard for a government to do what they should do without enough money. It’s like a housewife, however skillful in cooking, can’t serve her family a good meal without rice. As said in Mandarin, 巧婦難為無米之炊(chao3 fu4 nan2 wei2  wu2 mi3 zhi chui). 巧婦, a skillful housewife, 難為 hard to achieve, 無米之炊, cooking without rice.


油 Oil: This indispensable element in cooking is often used as a connotation for under-the-table profits. The head of the purchase unit in a big enterprise, for example, is often said to be a job with “a lot of oil and water.” 油水很多(you2 shui3 hen3 duo) So when you’re trying to grab illegal profits or taking advantage of others, we’ll say you’re 揩油 (kai3 you2 or ka you2).


When someone is smooth-tongued and speak glibly, we’ll call him油腔滑調(you2 qiang hua2 diao4), not in a favorable way. 油滑 means oily and slippery; 腔調, tone. In 金瓶梅 (Jing ping2 Mei2), which I talked a little bit about in April, 西門慶(xi men2 qing4) likes to call his concubine 小油嘴(xiao3 you2 zui3), little oily mouth when she is saying something witty or tricky.


When do you need to apply oil to your soles? It must be when you need to run away from an undesirable situation, like running into your x that had an ugly breakup with you, or, one of your debtees. In such cases, you need to腳底抹油(jiao3 di3 mo3 you2) and take off.


(TO BE CONTIUNED)


柴、米、油、鹽、醬、醋、茶=柴、米、油、盐、酱、醋、茶
開門七件事=开门七件事
乾柴烈火=干柴烈火
米蟲=米虫
吃飯=吃饭
巧婦難為無米之炊=巧妇难为无米之炊
油腔滑調=油腔滑调
西門慶=西门庆
腳=脚