Idiom Explanation:
Describe someone who doesn’t know even one word.
Pronunciation:
目不识丁
mù bù shí dīng
Origin:
后晋·刘昫《旧唐书·张弘靖传》：“今天下无事，汝辈挽得两石力弓，不如识一丁字。”
Story:
During the reign of Emperor Xianzong of Tang Dynasty, Zhang Hongjing, the governor of Youzhou Prefecture, had two “ministers” under his command, one named Wei Yong and the other named Zhang Zonghou. The two men were very rude and bad in character. They often ate, drank and played until late at night, and had to let the guards escort them home with a large group of soldiers and horses, with lanterns and torches shining all over the street, causing a lot of disturbance. When they were unhappy, they took the soldiers and the people as a punching bag, scolding them at will, showing off their authority and lawlessness.
Once, they got drunk and cursed at the soldiers: “The world is peaceful now, and there is no war, so what’s the use of you barrels! If you can draw a two-stone bow, you might as well know the word ‘ding’ ……” This was clearly an insult to the soldiers, ridiculing them for being uneducated, having only some rough strength, and allowing people to command and fight for their lives, but usually seemingly of no use whatsoever. The soldiers listened to these words, very angry, the back of the discussion, hate the bones.
It so happened that Zhang Hongjing received a reward for the soldiers, he embezzled from the funds, and a part of the private share. When the soldiers found out about it, they were furious and could not tolerate it any more, so they rebelled together and killed Wei Yong and Zhang Zong Hou, and also caught Zhang Hong Jing and imprisoned him. In addition, they also surrounded his residence. Because all the soldiers and lower officials were united and had the full support of the local people, the higher officials and the court had no choice but to demote Zhang Hongjing and transfer him, so that the matter could be settled.
The idiom of “the eyes don’t know how to read” came about. Since the word “ding” is a very simple and easy to recognize, if you do not even know the word “ding”, of course, the level of literacy is extremely low. Therefore, illiterate people who do not know how to read and write are often referred to as “ding”, or “ding can’t read”, “can’t read ding”, “can’t read a ding “.
In addition, there is a saying that the allusion to “not being able to read and write” is from the Book of Jin – Fu Jian Zhuan. In the seventh year of Taiyuan (382 AD), Fu Jian banqueted with his ministers in the front hall, playing music and giving poems. In the poem presented by Jiang Pingzi, the special driver of Qinzhou, there was a character “Ding”, but the vertical hook underneath was written as vertical and became the character “丧”. Fu Jian did not know it and asked what it was, but Jiang Pingzi replied, “I am too rigid to be bent, and it is not enough to offer something that is not right.” Fu Jian was very happy to hear this and promoted Jiang Pingzi to the top position. In fact, Jiang Pingzi wrote the word “Ding” wrongly, and the word he cleverly wrote was the ancient word “Xia”. Jiang Pingzi did not know that this was an ancient character, and Fu Jian, a rough man, did not know that it was the character “下” either, so he praised Jiang Pingzi a bit.
Similar Idioms:
- 胸无点墨
