In part 1 of common Chinese words and their stories, we learned 5 common Chinese words and the story behind those 5 Chinese words – 上当，东西，朋友，团团转 and 破天荒. If you have not read this post, please click here to read it.
In this part 2 series, we will learn three new Chinese words – 见鬼, 伙计, 借光 and their origin.
见鬼 Jiàn guǐ
The Chinese word 见 Jiàn is to see and 鬼 guǐ is ghost. How does this commonly used Chinese words 见鬼 Jiàn guǐ come about?
The story happened in the house of a very successful merchant named Li Ji. Li Ji had a beautiful wife, but had to be in the house alone for a long period of time. This was because he often went on long business trips.
One day, when Li Ji was out on a business trip, a handsome doctor passed by his house at the time when the wife was having a terrible headache. Hearing the doctor’s bell, she invited the doctor into the house to treat her. The strange thing about her illness was that whenever the doctor was around, her headache would not occur. But, the headache would return as soon as he was not around. Due to this, Li Ji’s wife had to call on the doctor every day. As such, Li Ji’s wife and the doctor had an affair.
Every time Li Ji was on a long trip, he would return regularly on the Dragon Boat Festival (15th day of the Lunar month) every year. But that year, for no reason, he came back on the 10th day of the Lunar month. Just after dusk, upon hearing a noise from the main gate, Li Ji’s wife and the doctor, who were naked in bed, were startled by the noise and was too shock to know what to do.
At this time, the quick-witted maidservant, in order to protect own self from being punished by Li Ji because she knew of the affair, took a box of powder from her mistress’ dressing table and smeared the powder over the doctor’s face. She then loosened and mess up his hair to look like a ghost. After that, she instructed him to walk with jumping steps.
As soon as Li Ji opened the gate, he was startled by a wild-haired figure jumping past him. He wondered what it could be. However, both his wife and the maid claimed they did not see anything. He described the figure as having messy hair and white face to the wife. The wife claimed, “You must have seen a ghost”. The maid sang the same tune as the mistress as well.
As Li Ji was tired after the long journey home, he too felt that his eyes must have played tricks on him. The wife told him that it was a bad omen to see a ghost. The maid then added that after seeing a ghost, they need to sprinkle the house with chicken, sheep and pig’s blood to get rid of the bad omen.
As Li Ji was very gullible, he took the blood of chicken, sheep and pig and started sprinkling all around the house. When the neighbors saw this and asked him what he was doing, he told them “I have seen a ghost”. When the neighbor heard it, they laughed behind his back as they knew full well what had been going on in the house. They said “ he saw a ghost indeed”.
Since then, whenever people see something unbelievable or fantastic, they will say “ 见鬼 jiàn guǐ I saw a ghost” or “活见鬼 huó jiàn guǐ I really saw a ghost”.
The Chinese to English translation of 见鬼
- dammit
- curse it!
- go to hell
- to hell with it!
- holy shit
- to be fantastic (figure of speech)
- to be absurd (figure of speech)
How to use this common Chinese words 见鬼 jiàn guǐ
我的手机怎么找不着，真是见鬼了！
Wǒ de shǒu jī zěn me zhǎo bù zháo, zhēn shi jiàn guǐ le!
Dammit, why can’t I find my mobile!
见鬼，我们到底在做什么？
Jiàn guǐ, wǒ men dào dǐ zài zuò shén me
What the hell are we doing?
见鬼了，谁要和他一起工作？
Jiàn guǐ le, shéi yào hé tā yīqǐ gōng zuò?
Who the hack wants to work with him?
伙计 huǒ jì
The story of this common Chinese word 伙计 huǒ jì happened around 770-476BC. There were two close friends in the State of Qi. One was called Bao Shuya 鲍叔牙 and the other was Guan Zhong 管仲. As they were army pals, they later formed a business partnership. Guan Zhong was from a poor family, whereas Bao Shuya was wealthy. Bao Shuya admired Gaun Zhong of his uprightness and filial to his aged mother. He gladly used his own money to set up a business partnership selling silk with Guan Zhong.
Not only did they sell silk in their neighborhood, they also sell to far away places as well. Bao Shuya was good with business and sold more silk for higher profits than Guan Zhong. Guan Zhong, on the other hand, was not as articulate and smart like Bao. Thus, he sometimes even sold at a loss. Despite all these, Bao still insisted to keep a joint account 伙计 huǒ jì with him. He even shared the profits equally with Guan. Guan felt bad because of this. He told Bao to keep the account separately as the company suffered loss because of him.
Instead of agreeing to Guan’s request, Bao said “you and I are as close as the hands and the feet, how could you even mention the word loss”. As close friends, they should not bother over such small matters. To Bao, friendship was the most important thing.
The way that Bao And Guan kept a joint account shows a genuine friendship between the two friends. From then on, people called doing business by means of a partnership as “伙计 huǒ jì joint account”. This Chinese word now has other meanings as well.
The Chinese to English translation of 伙计 huǒ jì
- partner
- fellow
- mate
- waiter
- servant
- shop assistant
How to use this common Chinese words 伙计 huǒ jì
If you watch a lot of Hong Kong drama, you will surely hear this following sentence a lot.
伙计， 买单。
Huǒ jì, mǎi dān
The Chinese word 伙计 here means the waiter.
Waiter, bill please.
他是我的老伙计。
Tā shì wǒ de lǎo huǒ jì.
He is my old pal.
伙计们，让我们好好的干。
Huǒ jì men, ràng wǒ men zài hǎo hǎo de gàn yī cì
Fellows / Guys, let us do a good job.
借光 jiè guāng
The literal translation of 借光 is borrow light. 借 jiè is borrow and 光 guāng is light. How did this Chinese expression come about?
The story happened in a village in the State of Qi. The inhabitants of the village were very poor that all men and women had to work hard to make ends meet. They worked in the fields during the day, and in the evenings they did extra work to earn more money for the family. As they were poor, they wanted to economize on lamp oil while working in the evenings. Therefore, each of them contribute a small sum of money and sat close to each other around one lamp.
At that time, there was one particular woman in the village who sat together at the lamp without paying her share because she was too poor. When the rest of the villagers found out in the end, they questioned her about it. Without hesitation, she told them she worked from morning till night, arranging their chairs, cleaning the floor and cleaning their tables. Although she did not contribute any money, but she did many things for them. In addition, she said the lamp would not become dimmer just because an extra person shares its light. Furthermore, it won’t get any brighter if she moved away. “Please let me borrow the light, she said!”. After hearing what she said, they allowed her to “borrow” their light.
Borrow light “借光” later spread widely as an everyday expression.
The Chinese to English translation of 借光 jiè guāng
- Excuse me
- Make way
- to profit from somebody else’s prestige
How to use this common Chinese words 借光 jiè guāng
借光，请让我过去。
Jiè guāng, qǐng ràng wǒ xià chē
Excuse me, make way please.
Instead of 借光, you may use 借过 jiè guò here.
能够来这么著名的餐馆吃饭都是借了你的光。
Néng gòu lái zhè me zhù míng de cān guǎn chī fàn dōu shì jiè le nǐ de guāng
I borrowed your light to eat in such a famous restaurant
借光，厕所在几楼？
Jiè guāng, cè suǒ zài jǐ lóu？
Excuse me, which floor is the toilet?
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