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Thread: Chinese idioms learning (2)

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[quote=ZOEY,257771]No.2 滥竽充数 (Lan 4 Yu 2 Chong 1 Shu 4). It means:"Pretending to Play the Yu to Retain His Position in the Orchestra."

Story: During the Warring States (475-221 BC), a King of Qi was very fond of the Yu (a kind of musical instrument). He had raised about three hundred musicians to play for him everyday.

A guy named Mr. Nanguo knew that the king liked the Yu very much and treated those musicians very well so that he intended to join them. Actually, he couldn't play the Yu at all. But he knew that the king liked those musicians to play the Yu together. If he joined them, he just need to pretend playing the Yu and no one would notice that he couldn't play the Yu.

Several years had passed and those other musicians hadn't found out that Mr. Nanguo could not play the Yu because he pretended very well.

Unluckily, the king died one day and his son succeeded the throne. The new king has the same hiabit like his father---being very fond of the Yu. However, he did not like those musicians playing together for him. He preferred to let them play for him one by one. This made Mr. Nanguo feel very worried. Finally, he escaped from the palace and never came back.

Do you understand it? We usually use this idiom to depict those who do not have competence or ablity but pretend that they can whatever you require.[/quote]

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