Pursuit of a phrase that pays dividends

Chinese sayings are baffling to the untrained observer. Back home in Australia, I had a friend who was obsessed by a race horse called Little Red Dragon. He backed it at 60/1, and this flashy little filly won Jimmy a small fortune. But Little Red Dragon became Jimmy's curse. He always backed it and end up losing more than five times the amount he initially won. "You're putting all your eggs in one basket," we warned.

In China they would say: "Jimmy, you are a farmer sitting near a tree stump waiting for a white rabbit." The saying is based on the story of a farmer who saw a rabbit kill itself by crashing onto a tree stump. The farmer took the plump rabbit to market and was overjoyed by his small fortune. The old man walked back to the stump and waited for another white rabbit. By all accounts he is still waiting.

This ancient saying is used today by 30-something Shanghai yuppies talking about a questionable stock to rise. These guys, like many fortune hunters in the Middle Kingdom, are all trying to pull rabbits out of their hats, trying to conjure up some magic in a bid to get rich quick. But we know it's all folly. Vanity, vanity, vanity, all is vanity, said the philosopher. What shall a man profit if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?

I love the odd idiom, but whenever I mention a famous saying, such as the above Biblical references or even Greek words of wisdom (know thyself is gem), there are Chinese idioms that say a similar thing.

This is no coincidence and after extensive research I would like to share a theory.

I believe there was a period in history, in which a group of really wise people got together and made up every wise saying there ever was. They then handed them out and we're still saying them today. The philosophy fest happened about 500 BC.

Confucius (551-479 BC) gave birth to a school of thought followed by more people for more generations than any other human being in history. But all his wise sayings interestingly corresponded with the philosophical flourishing in the West via Socrates (469-399 BC) and his fellow Greeks. There was also a fine fellow called Siddartha Gautama (563-460 BC) who came up with some damn good ideas about living a happy life. Most of us know him as Buddha.

So I reckon something happened before these guys got all fired up. Maybe space ships visited earth and a bunch of really smart aliens told everybody how it all worked. Maybe about 500 BC, humans reached their spiritual zenith and discovered the true meaning of this funny thing called life.

I was quite rattled by my sudden burst of enlightenment and searched for the world's best saying. I consulted wise people, meditated on mountains and even did a little chanting. However the answer came via a Beijing bicycle repairman called Wang Xiao.

He was fixing my friend's bike, and I asked the repairman for the world's best saying. Wang fixed the broken wheel, spun it back to health and handed the bicycle back to my friend. He then smiled at me.

"Be nice."

(China Daily 08/14/2007 page20)