Mr. Fool Moves The Mountain. It is a Chinese saying 愚公移山 “yú gōng yí shān” It literally means “Fool gentleman moves the mountain.”. Four simple words with a big message. Everything is possible when you are persistent and when you have perseverance.
Kids always think this saying is quite interesting. They ask me, “Who is Mr. Fool?” “Why does he want to move a mountain?”
I remember that one said, “Is Mr. Fool as silly as Mr. Bean?” Laughter followed.
Well, Mr. Fool might seem silly when he started to move a small amount of dirt in front of his house. The neighbors saw him and his family members doing so every day and got curious.
They asked Mr. Fool, “What are you doing? Why are you moving the dirt from the two mountains that are in front of your house?” Mr. Fool replied, “I want to move the two mountains so the villagers can have a direct path to town instead of hiking over the mountains to get to the village.”
When the neighbors realized Mr. Fool’s project many joined him and his family.
However, a wise man in the small village heard about this endeavor and came to him and said, “You are at your 90s and you are trying to move the mountains and create a path to town. That is impossible!”
Mr. Fool replied, “This job will continue even after I am gone. My children can keep working on it. Their children can keep doing it. Their children’s children will join, too. This will keep going and the mountains will be moved and we will have a direct path to town.”
The wise man had no more objections. The rest is a legend.
The supreme god of all gods, Jade Emperor was notified about this and about the determination of this 90-year-old man. Jade Emperor made it happen. The two mountains* were separated, one was moved to the east side and the other one was moved to the west side.
This is a folktale Chinese children know very well. It is about facing the challenges with persistence and perseverance.
Chinese sayings are a pathway to step into Chinese culture in depth. At the same time, Chinese sayings can connect cultures. Is there a saying in another language you know that has a similar meaning?
Share this story with your child.
Be proud of yourself for introducing Mandarin Chinese to your young child. It is your everyday efforts that make your child enjoy what you want to share with her!
The joy of learning starts from the first step forward and each step follows afterward.
I am a slow walker, but I never walk back. –Abraham Lincoln
image by triplefivedrew.
A similar expression in Korean is: 대기만성 (Dae Gi Maun Sung) is “it takes long time to make a big plate.” This expression wants to say that magnificent and successful people are not made quickly like big plates. As we say “rome wasn’t built in a day” in English, successful people are not made in a day, too.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing the Korean expression that similar analogy. From one culture to another we see the connection between them and we learn from one another. “대기만성 (Dae Gi Maun Sung)” has shown us that.