1 A
矮子里拔将军 直：pick a general from among the dwarfs
意：select someone for lack of a better one;
select from among the mediocre/ run-of-mill
B
八字还没一撇 直：Not even the first stroke of the character “八” has happened.
意：Nothing tangible is in sight.
Things aren’t even starting to take place yet.
There is no sign of anything happening yet.
Things are still up in the air.
班门弄斧 直：Wield the axe before Lu Ban (the ancient master carpenter).
意：display one’s learning or parade one’s skill in the presence of an
expert;
teach one’s grannie how to suck egges;
bring coal to Newcastle
杯弓蛇影 直：mistake the shadow of a bow in the cup for a snake
意：self-created suspicion;
imaginary fears;
be extremely nervous and suspicious
杯水车薪 直：try to put out a carload of burnig firewood with a cup of water
意：a useless attempt;
a drop in the bucket;
utterly inadequate measure
背水一战 直：fight with one’s back to the river or wall
意：fight to win or die;
fight a last-ditch battle;
put up a desperate fight
冰冻三尺， 直：It takes more than one cold day to freeze three feet of ice.
非一日之寒 意：The trouble is deep-rooted;
Rome was not built in a day.
兵来将挡， 直：stop an advancing army with troops and onrushing water with
earth
水来土掩 意：counter move for move;
counter measure for measure
不以规矩， 直：You cannot draw squares and circles without the campass and
square.
不成方圆 意：Nothing can be accomplished without norms and standards.
C
草木皆兵 直：take every grass and tree as an enemy soldier
意：a state of extreme nervousness, as if surrounded by enemies
沧海桑田 直：Seas change into mulberry fields.
意：Time brings great change to the world.
(饱经沧桑： have experienced many vicissitudes of life)
赤膊上阵 直：go into battle stripped to the waist 2 意：take personal charge and go it alone despite opposition;
Throw away all disguise and tactics;
come out into the open as a result of desperation or foolhardiness
此地无银 直：The 300 taels of silver are not buried here (a sign put up by the man in
the
三百两 folk tale over the place where he had hidden the money)
意：A clumsy self-exposing performance or denial;
A guilty person gives himself away by conspicuously protesting his
innocence;
Protest one’s innocence too much.
吹胡子瞪眼 直：froth at the mouth and glare with rage
意：snort and stare in anger;
fume with rage
唇亡齿寒 直：If the lips are gone, the teeth will be exposed.
意：If one of two interdependent things falls, the other is in danger.
吹毛求疵 直：blow upon the hair trying to discover a flaw
意：find fault with;
pick holes in
寸有所长， 直：An inch has its length and a foot sometmes falls short.
尺有所短 意：Everybody has his strennths and weaknesses.
D
打肿脸 直：Try to look fat by slapping one’s face till it’s swollen.
充胖子 Boast about one’s pink cheek after having been slapped.
意：Do something beyond one’s means in order to look impressive;
try to satisfy one’s vanity when one cannot really afford to do so
当一天和尚 直：go on tolling the bell as long as one remains a monk.
撞一天钟 意：do the minimum required or do as little as possible to get by;
do the least that is expected of one;
take a passive attitude towards one’s work
调虎离山 直：lure the tiger out of his mountain or lair
意：tempt or entice somebody into leaving his vantage ground
叠床架屋 直：pile one bed upon another or build one house on top of another
意：needless duplication;
repetition and superfluity
东方不亮 直：When there is dark in the east, it is light in the west;
西方亮， When things are dark in the south, there is still light in the north.
黑了南方
有北方 意：There is alsways plenty of room for manoeuvring.
E
F
放长线 直：throw a long line to catch a big fish
钓大鱼 意：devise a long-term plan to secure something big
翻手为云 直：produce clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with another 3 覆手为雨 意：wield one’s power capriciously;
be shifty and capricious;
be tricky and deceitful
放马后炮 直：fire belated shots
意：comment on something when it is already over;
fail to give timely advice;
be a Monday morning quarterback
风声鹤唳 直：scared by the moan of the wind and the cry of the cranes, and seeing
the
草木皆兵 enemy in every bush and tree
意：describing the extreme nervousness of a fleeing army’s suspicion of
danger at the slightest sound
风调雨顺 直：The elements are propitious, the country is prosperous and the
people are
国泰民安 at peace.
意：favorable climate, prosperity and peace
风雨同舟 直：in the same storm-tossed boat
意：stand together through thick and thin;
share weal and woe;
help each other in distress;
share the same fate with;
cast in one’s lot with
佛面蛇心 直：have a Buddha’s face but a viper’s heart
意：be honey-lipped but evil at heart;
be a malicious hypocrite
佛要金装 直：As Buddha needs a gilt statue, man needs fine clothes.
人要衣装 意：Fine feather make fine birds; Fine clothes make the man.
釜底抽薪 直：pull out the burning firewood from under a cauldron
意：take drastic measures to deal with a critical situation;
cut the ground from under somebody’s feet;
tackle the root cause
赴汤蹈火 直：be ready to jump into boiling water and plunge into raging fire
意：go through hell and high water;
be ready to risk one’s life
G
肝脑涂地 直：be ready to dash one’s brains out or scatter one’s innards on the
ground
意：be ready to lay down one’s life for a cause;
be willing to repay a favor with extreme sacrifice
赶鸭子上架 直：drive a duck onto a perch
意：make somebody do something entirely beyond him
隔岸观火 直：watch a fire from the other side of a river
意：look on at somebody’s misfortune with indifference;
show no concern for another’s trouble
