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In a Morning or Evening (Overnight)

Characters:

Pronunciation: Yi(4) Zhao(1) Yi(4) Xi(1)

Explanation: Describing a very short period of time.

The Story: At the time of the Warring States, a man named Ji Liang fell ill. His son saw his father's critical condition and sent for three doctors.

The first one, Dr. Jiao, after examining Ji Liang, said, "You've failed to deal with cold and heat properly. Your functional metabolism is in disorder and your functional power is weak. The cause of your sickness is over-hunger and over-eating and indulgence in carnal desires. It can be cured only slowly." After hearing of this, Ji Liang told his son: "He is only a mediocre doctor."

The second one, Dr. Yu, looked over Ji Liang and said, "Your illness did not come in a morning or evening. It's been there for a very long time. I'm afraid that I cannot do anything about it." Ji Liang then said to his son, "He is a good doctor."

The third one, Dr. Lu, also examined Ji Liang's condition. He said, "You're beyond the cure of medicine." Upon hearing his words, Ji Liang praised him and said, "You are really an excellent doctor!" He gave Dr. Lu many presents before sending him home.

Ji Liang was actually suffering from a nervous disorder. He soon recovered.

Usage Example (Pinyin): xue(2) yu(3) yan(2) bu(3) shi(4) yi(4) zhao(1) yi(4) xi(1)de shi(4), ni(3) xu(1) yao(4) qin(2) fen(4) he(2) nai(4) xin(1).

Usage Example (English translation): Learning a language is not an "in a morning or evening" task-- you need to be diligent and patient.

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.