General Information about Item:

• Verbal Folkore, Proverb
• Language: Chinese
• Country of Origin: China
• Informant: Raymond Hsu
• Date Collected: 10-20-18

Informant Data:

The informant is a Taiwanese American sophomore from outside Seattle. He was born and raised in the Seattle suburbs. At home, he speaks Mandarin with his parents and older sister who is also a Dartmouth student. His family celebrated most holidays associated with Chinese speaking regions. He also knows how to write in traditional Chinese characters. Raymond plays for the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, is majoring in Philosophy, and is also on the Pre-Health track.

Contextual Data:

Raymond learned this proverb from his parents when he was very young. He was going through a hard time at school and his parents wanted him to realize that only the people that were still supporting him were his true friends and not to worry about those that let him down

Item:

岁寒知松柏，患难见真情

suìhán zhī sōngbăi, huànnàn jiàn zhēnqíng

Literal translation: Only when the years grows cold do we see that the pine and cypress are the last to fade

Meaning: Only when we get into trouble do we know who our genuine friends are.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

• “suìhán zhī sōngbăi, huànnàn jiàn zhēnqíng, and the meaning is only when the years grows cold do we see that the pine and cypress are the last to fade and that means only when we get into trouble do we know who our genuine friends are. And I learned this from my parents. ”

Informant’s Comments:

Raymond often thinks of this proverb during hard times in college. At Dartmouth, it is very easy to make superficial friends. The many challenging social and academic situations college presents students are opportunities to weed out these kinds of relationships. As Raymond is a sophomore, there have been many challenging situations for him this fall term. Sophomores go through Greek rush and start to take harder level courses. Such changes heavily contrast freshmen year and present many challenges.

Collector’s Comments:

Like many Chinese proverbs I have already collected, this one used a negative situation to describe how friends can bring positive effects to one’s life. As such, this proverb takes a very serious tone and lacks humor. It seems that many Chinese proverbs related to friendship use examples in which people are tested or have to go through a bad scenario.

Related to structure, this proverb follows a similar two clause structure in which both clauses have the same amount of characters. Unlike other proverbs that use this structure, there appears to be no attention paid to character symmetry (characters that sound similar in the same position in both clauses) nor does there to be a tonal pattern in which both clauses have the same tones.

Collector’s Name: James Wen

Tags/Keywords:

• Chinese
• Friends
• Help
• Hard Times