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Full of Courage

Characters:

Pronunciation: Yi(4) Shen(1) Shi(4) Dan(3)

Explanation: Describing a fearless man.

The Story: During the period of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao of the kingdom of Wei and Liu Bei of the kingdom of Shu fought with each other for the control of the city of Hanzhong.

Cao Cao sent his general Zhang He to stockpile a large quantity of grain and fodder at the foot of the North Mountain by the Hanshui River. The aged general Huang Zhong was dispatched by Liu Bei to seize and burn Cao Cao's grain and fodder. At the same time, Huang Zhong was encircled by Cao Cao' men and could not break the cordon. Zhao Yun came to his rescue and saved him.

Seeing that Zhao Yun was unrivaled in his courage, Cao Cao led a great army himself to reinforce his men. Zhao Yun had by then withdrawn to the town of Mianyang garrisoned by Liu Bei's general Zhang Yi. When Zhang Yi saw that Cao Cao's army was bearing down on them ferociously, he wanted to close the gates in order to defend the town. Zhao Yun would not hear of it. He had the city gates opened widely, furled the flags and stopped the drums.

The Cao's army thought this must be a ruse and started to pull back. Taking advantage of the situation, Zhao Yun thumped the drums and gave chase. The Cao's army was utterly defeated. The next day, when Liu Bei came to Zhao Yun's camp, he said with feeling:" Zilong(Zhao Yun's familiar name), you are really full of courage!"

Usage Example (Pinyin): ke(3) yi(3) shuo(1) wo(3) men(2) zhi(1) dao(4) de suo(3) you(3) ying(1) xiong(2) dou(1) yi(4) shen(1) shi(4) dan(3).

Usage Example (English translation): We can say all the heroes we know are full of courage.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.