一字千金 Every word is worth one thousand taels of gold

一字千金 Every word is worth one thousand taels of gold
Sep 27, 2012 19:20
CAROLGREEN481 Points: Join Date: Jul 26, 2012 Status: offline	Every word is worth one thousand taels of gold —Valuable and beautiful writings About 2,250 years ago, at the end of the Warring States Period, there lived a very rich merchant named Lu Buwei in the State of Zhao. One day, when he was on business in the capital, Handan, he met Prince Zichu of the State of Qin, who was being held as a hostage in Zhao. He thought this should be a good chance for him to climb higher on the social ladder, and get richer. So he sent his most beautiful concubine to Zichu’s house, and offered her to Zichu as a gift. Later, he rescued Zichu and helped him get back to Qin. The rich merchant then spent lots of money helping Zichu ascend the Qin throne. To show his gratitude to his savior, Zichu, now called King Zhuangxiang，made Lu Buwei prime minister. Three years later, the king passed away and was succeeded by his thirteen-year-old son, who was to become China’s first emperor Qing Shihuang. The young king called Lu Buwei “Second Father.” In fact, Lu Buwei had long been having an affair with the Queen Mother, and was the power behind the throne. At that time, there were several powerful merchant-princes in other states, such as Prince Xinling of Wei, Prince Pingyua of Zhao and Prince Mengchang of. To enhance their prestige, they all vied with each other in making friends with talented men, and loved to treat or feed them in their houses with great hospitality. Powerful as the state of Qin was, it could not compare with these states, which were so proud of their merchant princes. Lu Buwei was embarrassed by this. So he too began to collect scholars, whom he treated very generously. As a result, more than three thousand scholars were lavishly entertained in his house. Lu Buwei asked every one of his guests to write down whatever they had heard or seen, and collected their writings into a big volume. The collection ran to more than two hundred thousand characters, and dealt with all things under the sky, ancient or contemporary. Lu gave the book the title, “Master Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals”. After the book was published, he asked his bailiff to hang the huge volume on the capital’s city gate, together with one thousand catties of hard currency above it. A notice posted on the city wall invited all the scholars and guests of the principalities to read the book, and promised that anyone who could prove it necessary to add or take away even one single word would get the money as a reward. However, the people all knew that Lu Buwei was rich and powerful, and he just wanted to show off. So, a long time passed, but nobody stepped forward to try and claim the attractive reward. Although Lu Buwei meant to show off his wealth and power, people drew from the story an idiom to describe valuable or beautiful writings: Yi Zi Qian Jin meaning “One thousand catties of gold for one word”.

Sep 27, 2012 19:20

CAROLGREEN481
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Join Date: Jul 26, 2012
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Every word is worth one thousand taels of gold —Valuable and beautiful writings

About 2,250 years ago, at the end of the Warring States Period, there lived a very rich merchant named Lu Buwei in the State of Zhao. One day, when he was on business in the capital, Handan, he met Prince Zichu of the State of Qin, who was being held as a hostage in Zhao. He thought this should be a good chance for him to climb higher on the social ladder, and get richer. So he sent his most beautiful concubine to Zichu’s house, and offered her to Zichu as a gift. Later, he rescued Zichu and helped him get back to Qin. The rich merchant then spent lots of money helping Zichu ascend the Qin throne. To show his gratitude to his savior, Zichu, now called King Zhuangxiang，made Lu Buwei prime minister. Three years later, the king passed away and was succeeded by his thirteen-year-old son, who was to become China’s first emperor Qing Shihuang. The young king called Lu Buwei “Second Father.” In fact, Lu Buwei had long been having an affair with the Queen Mother, and was the power behind the throne.

At that time, there were several powerful merchant-princes in other states, such as Prince Xinling of Wei, Prince Pingyua of Zhao and Prince Mengchang of. To enhance their prestige, they all vied with each other in making friends with talented men, and loved to treat or feed them in their houses with great hospitality. Powerful as the state of Qin was, it could not compare with these states, which were so proud of their merchant princes. Lu Buwei was embarrassed by this. So he too began to collect scholars, whom he treated very generously. As a result, more than three thousand scholars were lavishly entertained in his house. Lu Buwei asked every one of his guests to write down whatever they had heard or seen, and collected their writings into a big volume. The collection ran to more than two hundred thousand characters, and dealt with all things under the sky, ancient or contemporary. Lu gave the book the title, “Master Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals”. After the book was published, he asked his bailiff to hang the huge volume on the capital’s city gate, together with one thousand catties of hard currency above it. A notice posted on the city wall invited all the scholars and guests of the principalities to read the book, and promised that anyone who could prove it necessary to add or take away even one single word would get the money as a reward.

However, the people all knew that Lu Buwei was rich and powerful, and he just wanted to show off. So, a long time passed, but nobody stepped forward to try and claim the attractive reward.

Although Lu Buwei meant to show off his wealth and power, people drew from the story an idiom to describe valuable or beautiful writings: Yi Zi Qian Jin meaning “One thousand catties of gold for one word”.

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