1. Chinese language saved Cao Zhi’s life
During the Three Kingdoms period, after Cao Cao died, Cao Pi inherited the throne and became King of Wei. However, he was very jealous of his younger brother Cao Zhi, because Cao Zhi was very smart and talented, and he was afraid that Cao Zhi would usurp the throne. So Cao Pi sent someone to find Cao Zhi and forced Cao Zhi to recite a poem within seven steps, with the title "brothers", but the word "brother" was not allowed in the poem, and if he failed, he would be beheaded.
Cao Zhi was so angry that he wrote a poem in seven steps. "Cooking beans burns the bean sprouts, and the beans weep in the cauldron. They are born from the same root, so why fry each other in a hurry!" This poem uses beans and beanstalk (bean sprouts) as a metaphor for brothers, and advises Cao Pi not to kill brothers, which makes Cao Pi listen. Feeling very ashamed, Cao Zhi was saved from death. A poem saved Cao Zhi's life. Isn't this the use of Chinese language? You see, how important this Chinese language is!
2. Old Chen is looking for someone
Old Chen When he went to a factory in Beijing to contact a job, an engineer from the factory was not at the factory for some reason. Lao Chen found the engineer's home at the address given by the factory, knocked on the door, and asked, "Is Engineer Cao at home?" The reply was: "Engineer Cao lives upstairs." Lao Chen went upstairs to find Engineer Cao, sat down to talk, and realized that he had found the wrong person. What he was looking for was Engineer Chao, who lived in the same house he just knocked on. He returned downstairs and found Engineer Chao.
Engineer Chao knew the whole story and felt a little funny. "Excuse me, what's your surname?" "My surname is Cen." "Oh, Comrade Lao Cen, please..." Why the ellipsis? It turned out that Engineer Chao was stunned when he saw the business card handed over by Lao Chen: You changed my last name. That's it, why did he even change his last name? Engineer Chao didn't know that it was a common problem for Guangzhou people to pronounce the initial consonant "ch" instead of the initial "c" consonant when speaking Mandarin. It was not surprising.
3. This year is very unlucky
There is a family who has been hit with lawsuits one after another, which makes the whole family very distressed. On New Year's Eve, the father and son sat down to discuss. The father said: "Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Let's think of a few auspicious words together, write them on red paper and stick them up so that the guests can read them and pray for good luck next year." Luck, okay?" Both sons said great, and asked their father to speak first.
The father thought for a while and said: "This year is good." The eldest son said: "There is little bad luck." The second son said: "No lawsuit." The father added: "Feed the pigs and they will grow into elephants." The two sons shouted in unison: "All rats will die!" The father and son put together five sentences, 21 words each, and wrote them into a long banner on red paper. They posted it on the nave, waiting for the guests to read it tomorrow. .
On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, his son-in-law was the first to come to pay New Year greetings. As soon as I entered the house, I saw a banner posted in the nave with a line of large characters without punctuation, so I read aloud and read the 21 characters into the following four sentences: "This year is so unlucky. I have to go to court and feed pigs." If you grow up like a mouse, you will die clean!"
4. A clever marriage letter
Once upon a time, there was a couple who gave birth to a daughter. When this daughter grew up, her face was pockmarked, her hair was lost due to yellow sores, her left hand was disabled, and she had a limp. When she reached marriageable age, her parents were really worried. In order for their daughter to get married, the old couple spent a lot of money and materials and invited a gentleman with crooked ideas. Please write the marriage certificate for me.
As expected, Mr. Waicai's writings turned out to be fruitful. After reading the marriage certificate, a young man who proposed to propose decisively made the marriage. On the wedding day, the two parties had a fierce quarrel. The man said: "It is clearly written in your marriage contract: 'With jet black hair, no pockmarks, and small feet, Zhou Zheng, he is a good man in life.' It's so colorful, but who knows that she has a pockmarked face, a bald head, and a missing limb? Such a girl." We can't have it!"
The woman retorted: "It is clearly written in the marriage certificate, 'No dark hair, no pockmarks, no big feet, and a good life. 'Since you agreed. Come down, you can't change your mind now!" The two sides couldn't argue, so they went to the county government office to reason.
After the county magistrate inquired about the situation, he looked at the marriage certificate and found that the sentences on it were not punctuated and broken. No wonder the woman was making excuses. Now that the matter has reached this point, no matter how hard the ruling is, the man will be punished. He scolded her harshly: "You are careless and careless in doing things, and you shall be responsible for the consequences." The man had no choice but to marry the ugly wife back.
5. Punctuation saves lives
One day in the late Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi summoned a calligrapher to inscribe on a fan. The calligrapher strokes his pen.
He wrote a poem "Liangzhou Ci" by Wang Zhihuan, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty: "Far above the Yellow River, among the white clouds, there is an isolated city called Wanren Mountain. Why should the Qiang flute blame the willows? The spring breeze does not reach Yumen Pass." Unexpectedly, the calligrapher was negligent and leaked something while writing. Cixi was furious when she saw the word "Jian", thinking that the calligrapher was ridiculing her for being uneducated, and wanted to die on the spot.
The calligrapher gained wisdom in his haste, and said calmly: "Lord Buddha, please calm down. I filled in the words with Wang Zhihuan's poetic touch." Then he recited in public: "Far above the Yellow River, there are white clouds. The lonely city Wanren Mountain, why should the Qiang flute blame the spring breeze of the willows for not crossing Yumen Pass?" After hearing this, Cixi couldn't think of anything else to blame, so she gave up and rewarded the calligrapher with a lot of silver.
Punctuation marks were not used at that time, but the pause when the calligrapher recited the poem was equivalent to the role of punctuation today. In this way, punctuation saved the calligrapher's life.
Extended information:
Chinese is a collective term for the abilities of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating language and language knowledge and cultural knowledge. One is the ability to listen, speak, read, write and translate language, that is, the ability to use written and spoken language; the other is the knowledge of memorizing and understanding language and culture, that is, linguistics and culture. Any language belongs to the category of Chinese. Literary literature and practical literature are both article genres in Chinese. It is not just literary things that are Chinese.
The word "Chinese" is not included in Cihai and Ciyuan for annotation. "Modern Chinese Dictionary" explains that "'language and writing' also refers to 'language and literature'". "Xinhua Dictionary" notes that "'language and literature' also refers to language and articles' or 'language and literature'".
Reference materials: Baidu Encyclopedia: Chinese