What Are Chengyu?
Chengyu (成语 – Cheng2 yu3) are fixed phrases used in Chinese which typically (but not always) consist of 4 characters. Most of these phrases are based on stories from literature or history. Chengyu tend to be literary or classical Chinese rather than modern Chinese which can make them a little bit harder to understand or remember when starting out. They also have more limited usages than a lot of common words and though something might sound okay grammatically, it just doesn’t work for the given Chengyu.
Even though textbooks tend to insist Chengyu are used day in and day out by every single native speaker, they tend to be found more in written material rather than common speech. If you want to sound educated, or do a lot of reading, Chengyu are completely indispensable however. Their usage in speech is a bit analogous to using Latin or French terms to sound educated, a little can help convey a point and show knowledge, but too much runs on pretentiousness. I try to learn these in context of an example or two. Think of these like fancier words, if you use it wrong, you look worse than if you didn’t use it at all.
Check out my article here for some tools to make this a lot easier if you don’t recognize all of the characters.
Common Chengyu
乱七八糟
乱七八糟 – luan4 qi1 ba1 zao1
From my research, this Chengyu was first used in the Nie Hai Hua (孽海花) – A Flower in a Sinful Sea. From we see that this Chengyu further delves into history for its origin. It is based on The Rebellion of the Seven States during the Han dynasty as well as the Rebellion of the Eight Princes during the Jin dynasty. Both of these were chaotic uprisings and pivotal moments in China’s history which helps explain the Chengyu.
乱七八糟 means “to be in a mess”. The exact usage is a little more nuanced but roughly the same. Basically, we want to describe things being a complete mess in a more literal and physical sense. Let’s go over some examples.
Examples
她的房子乱七八糟。 – Her house is a complete mess.
他把医院所有的房间弄得乱七八糟。- He made a mess of every single room in the hospital.
你怎么又买了这些乱七八糟的垃圾？！ – Why did you bring this kind of trash home again?! (lit. “Why did you buy this kind of messy trash again?!”)
…弄得乱七八糟… – to make something a mess
Examples From The Originating Work
「你看屋裏的圖書 字畫、家伙器皿，布置得清雅整潔，不像公坊以前亂七八糟的樣子了，這是霞郎的成績。」 – 《孽海花》
六之介心裏亂七八糟地想了一陣，到底也沒有理出個頭緒來，只得把信收起，自顧自去歇他的午覺。 – 《孽海花》
譬如一個惡霸或強盜，霸佔了我們的房屋財產，弄得我們亂七八糟。- 《孽海花》
一模一样
一模一样 – yi1 mu2 yi1 yang4 [less commonly: yi1 mo2 yi1 yang4]
This Chengyu appears to originate in the Rulin Waishi (儒林外史) – Unofficial History of the Scholars per this. I found some other resources attributing this to other resources as well, but this looked to be the most definitive and the oldest work I found mentioned. 一模一样 means to be “the spitting image of [something]” or “to look identical to [something]”. This phrase isn’t just limited to people but can be used for objects as well.
Examples
他们俩长得一模一样。 – Those two look exactly alike.
这两本书的字体一模一样。 – The font in these two books is exactly alike.
你做的跟照片一模一样。 – You made this exactly the same as the picture.
Examples From The Originating Work
“我不會禳解，我來看看相公娘的气色罷。”便走了來，一屁股坐到床沿上。聘娘本來是認得他的，今日抬頭一看，卻見他黃著臉，禿著頭，就和前日夢里揪他的師姑一模一樣，不覺就懊惱起來。只叫得一聲“多勞”，便把被蒙著頭睡下。本師姑道：“相公娘心里不耐煩，我且去罷。” – 《儒林外史》
入乡随俗
入乡随俗 – ru4 xiang1 sui2 su2
The origin for this Chengyu was a bit more difficult to track down an origin for. Sources for this point to the Zhuangzi (庄子·山木), but the saying wasn’t quite in its final form at this point. This saying basically boils down to: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” It can also be summarized as “do as the locals do” as well. The usage implies that to fit in, one must follow whatever customs are in the location.
Examples
出国得入乡随俗。 – When you go abroad, you should do as the locals do.
你到那儿，就入乡随俗吧。 – If you’re going there, you need to do as the locals do.
我在这儿住了这么长时间，很早入乡随俗了。 – I’ve lived her for a long time already, I already accepted than when in Rome, you do as the Romans do.
Examples From The Originating Work
庄周曰：“吾守形而忘身，观于浊水而迷于清渊。且吾闻诸夫子曰：‘入其俗，从其俗。’今吾游于雕陵而忘吾身，异鹊感吾颡，游于栗林而忘真，栗林虞人以吾为戮，吾所以不庭也。” – 《庄子·山木》
Conclusion
These are just a few common Chengyu which are seen quite often. The use case for these is relatively simple, but these are powerful phrases which can shorten a sentence by a good bit and inject authenticity into your speech. These specific Chengyu are also used pretty equally between spoken Mandarin as well as in writing, so they are much more flexible than some Chengyu which are relegated to formal writing only. Try them out in your speech and writing and see how they work for you.