University of Cambridge Language Centre Chinese Intermediate

Ancient Chinese rhyme

This is a rhyme from an anthology dating from the Qing dynasty. It reflects the ancient Chinese people's view on healthy lifestyle rules and lists eight ‘more of this’ and eight ‘less of that’. You can access the translation and vocabulary on the next two tabs.

Rhyme on the healthy lifestyle in Chinese

Why have a go at writing your own 21st-century healthy lifestyle rhyme and compare it with this ancient one?

You can also use the vocabulary on the next tab to help you.

Rhyme on the healthy lifestyle in English

Click on either pinyin or characters to listen to individual words. The words are listed in the order in which they appear.

advice [obsolete]

Qing dynasty [1644-1912]

to drink

rice porridge

to eat [literary]

to eat

to shut

to comb

co-habit

alone

to stay

to receive

to accumulate

jade

to get

to tolerate

humiliation

to do

good deed

salary [obsolete]

do not