守株待兔 (Idiom)

Since it’s the year of the rabbit, I might as well as give you another 兔(tu4) idiom today.

守株待兔  (shou3 zhu dai4 tu4)

Denotation:

守: stay and watch for

株: tree

待: wait for

兔: rabbit

To stay under the tree and wait for the rabbit

Connotation:

To describe people who dream about success but won’t make any effort, or those who

won’t change to cope with the situations.

Example:

 身為業務員，你必須努力爭取客戶，不可「守株待兔」。

= 身为业务员，你必须努力争取客户，不可「守株待兔」。(Simplified)

  (shen wei2 ye4 wu4 yuan2, ni3 bi4 xu nu3 li4

  zheng qu3 ke4 hu4, bu4 ke3 shou3 zhu dai4 tu4)

        As a salesman, you have to work hard to get more customers.

        You can’t just sit and wait for them to come.

Allusion:

There was once a farmer in Sung Dynasty, who was not very smart but he worked hard on his farm every day.

One day as he was working on his farm, he saw a rabbit rush past him and bump into a tree by the farm.

Immediately he dropped his tool, ran to the faint rabbit and captured it. He was thrilled with the unexpected gain.

From then on, he wouldn’t labor over his farm like he used to. All he did every day was stay under the tree, expecting another rabbit to come.

I don’t have to tell you what happened next, do I?

Ever since I started this blog with a flash of idea out of the blue, I’m glad to know I’ve got some readers. As I don’t know you, I can’t call you or email you to “promote” my blog or make you love to learn Chinese more. What else can I do except posting my writing and守株待兔 ? To my “rabbits,” I’d like to say thank you. And enjoy yourself learning Chinese, the damn difficult language!  (No offence, you see how smart Chinese speakers and readers are now?)