Idiom Explanation:
The building by the water gets the moonlight first. The metaphor is to get some benefit or convenience before others because of being close to someone or something.
Pronunciation:
近水楼台先得月
jìn shuǐ lóutái xiān dé yuè
Origin:
宋·俞文豹《清夜录》：“范文正公镇钱塘，兵官皆被荐，独巡检苏麟不见录，乃献诗云：‘近水楼台先得月，向阳花木易逢春。’”
Story:
Fan Zhongyan was a very famous politician and literary scholar during the Northern Song Dynasty. When he was young, his family was very poor, but he studied hard and read a lot of books. Later, he worked as a high ranking official, such as a right admonisher, a governor and a counsellor. He once wrote the famous phrase “Worry about the world first, and be happy after it” in Yueyang Tower. As an important official of the court, Fan was a person of great integrity, treating people with modesty and especially good at selecting talents.
According to Song-Yu Wenbao’s “QingYeLu”, “Fan Wenzheng Gong was recommended to be a military officer in Qiantang, but Su Lin, the only inspector, was not recorded, so he offered a poem: ‘Near the water tower, the moon is first, and the sunny flowers and trees are easy for spring. Next, we will explain it in detail.
It is said that when Fan Zhongyan was the governor of Hangzhou, he was concerned about helping the civil and military officials in the city. Many officials were grateful to Fan because they were given positions where they could use their talents. There was an inspector named Su Lin who was not promoted by Fan because he worked in a county outside Hangzhou. Once, when Su Lin met Fan Zhongyan on official business, he took the opportunity to write a poem to Fan Zhongyan. In the poem, there are two lines like this: “Near the water, the moon comes first; towards the sun, flowers and trees are easy for spring.” It means that buildings near the water’s edge can get the moonlight first, and the flowers and trees growing towards the sunlight can easily grow and bloom, showing the scene of spring.
Su Lin is expressing his feeling of “no use for heroes”, and subtly pointing out that people who are close to Fan Zhongyan have been benefited, but he himself has never been promoted. Fan Zhongyan read it and understood it, and laughed. So, he found a suitable position for Su Lin according to his wish.
These two lines of poetry have since spread, and have been compressed to form the idiom “near the water tower”, but with a somewhat derogatory meaning. It is often used to satirize the situation of taking advantage of a certain convenience to get care of and take the lead in making profits.
