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The Chinese Idiom We Love to Hate!

1,097 views · Published 11 August 2016 · 3:19 · Indexed 23 October 2026

Channel: eChineseLearning · 2016 · Education

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For the full lesson, read here: http://goo.gl/m3sLkt

Learning Chinese, you will find that numbers have an important function in language far beyond counting.

Examples include: “七(qī) seven," “八(bā) eight," and the two verbs “上 (shàng) up," and “下 (xià) down." Such as, “七天 (qī tiān) seven days, ” “八点(bā diǎn) eight o’clock," “上楼 (shànglóu) go upstairs," and “下山 (xiàshān) go down the hill." 

An idiom that uses numbers at it's core is: “七上八下 (qīshàngbāxià)”. 

“七上八下(qī shàng bā xià)” in Chinese culture? “七上八下 (qīshàngbāxià)” is an idiom in Chinese. It is an adjective and literally means “seven up, eight down.” Chinese people use it to refer to an unsettled state of mind. This idiom was first used in one of the most famous classical Chinese novels “《水浒传》(shuǐ hǔ zhuàn),” written hundreds of years ago. In the novel, a man felt very uneasy in his heart, which he described in a tale about carrying 15 buckets of water up a mountain: “七上 (qī shàng), seven up” and “八下 (bā xià), eight down.” From then on “七上八下 (qīshàngbāxià)” has been used as an idiom in the Chinese language to mean an uneasy state of mind.

Mary xiànzài xīn lǐ  qī shàng bā xià, bù zhīdào gāi zěnme bàn.
Mary 现在    心 里 七 上       八 下，不 知道     该  怎么    办。
Mary felt agitated and did not know what she should do.

Learn this idiom and begin using it today!

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