Cup Bow Snake Shadow

http://a3.att.hudong.com/03/91/01300000365776124528916695872_s.jpg

Informant: John Ling, 19, M

Date Collected: 5/26/14

Genre: Proverb

Informant Data: John was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan and currently attends Dartmouth College. His background is Chinese-Taiwanese-American, and he is equally fluent in Mandarin and English, which are both his first languages. He does not remember where he first encountered this proverb, but was enthusiastic about sharing the story behind it. This proverb was collected through an interview at Dartmouth.

Text/Texture 

Chinese: 杯弓蛇影（bēi gōng shé yǐng)

Literal Translation: Cup bow snake shadow

Free Translation: A bow casts a snake shadow in a cup. 

Context: Used to calm imaginary fears and overly suspicious people.

Meaning/Interpretation:There was a guy who went to visit his friend, who served him tea. They were chatting and drinking tea when he noticed that there was a little snake in his tea. He didn't want to be rude, so he drank all the tea anyway. A couple days later he felt really sick, and his friend came to visit to find out what happened. The guy told his friend about the snake in his tea, and the friend was like, "You're being ridiculous; there's a bow hanging in my room and you saw its reflection in your cup." And the guy realized that his friend was right and instantly felt better. So don't worry about things that aren't real.