文化 | Hello China 英文版《你好中国》100集选（93-94集）

2019暑假已经结束！

新学期也如期而至。新的学期里，本号会不定期继续分享Hello China 英文版《你好，中国》，每期2集，至100集结束，从不同角度用英语阐释中华文化。为英语，尤其是高中英语学习中华文化铺路。

需要说明的是Hello China 英文版《你好，中国》是由中国国家广电总局主办、中国国际广播电台、高等教育出版社联合策划实施的大型多媒体系列文化项目。本分享视频来自腾讯视频，版权归原作者所有。本分享旨在学生英语学习。

#93 Contradiction: A Chinese tale of swords and shields 

Swords, shields and a Chinese contradiction

Maodun, the Chinese word for ‘contradiction’, is an unusual compound word that brings together two ancient weapons from the battlefields of China and even has its own etymological story.

Once upon a time, a salesman in the State of Chu (c.1030-223 BCE) sold both spears and shields. One day, he came to the market and introduced his goods.

First, he held up his shield, known as dun in Chinese, and declared: “My shield couldn’t be harder. No matter how sharp the weapon, it can’t penetrate my shield.”

He lowered the shield and then raised his spear, known as mao in Chinese. “My spear is extremely sharp. No matter how hard a thing is, it can penetrate it,” affirmed the Chu salesman laughing with pride.

Just then a man stepped forward from the crowd. Grinning, he asked the confident salesman, “If you attack your shield with your spear, what will happen?” The seller gasped and stood there speechless with the crowd’s laughter ringing in his ears.

The seller’s contradictory claim led to the creation of the Chinese term maodun to describe any relationship between objects or ideas in opposite positions.

Gradually, Chinese people began using zixiang maodum to refer to the inconsistency of a person’s words or deeds and the story remains as a warning against making contradictory statements.

#94 Carelessness: Chinese language

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