There once was an impatient farmer who lived during the Song Dynasty (sòng cháo 宋国,960-1279 AD). Everyday the anxious farmer would measure the growth of the crops. To his dismay, his crops were growing much slower than he expected.The farmer racked his brains trying to find better ways of planting in order to get quicker results. One day he finally came up with a solution. He started to physically pull the crops out of the ground, thus making them taller. The farmer worked very hard and at day’s end was physically exhausted but mentally happy as his plan had produced the desired results.When the farmer went home, he told his son of his “brilliant” method. His son went to the field only to discover that all of his crops were all dead.

In the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (nán běi cháo 南北朝,420-589AD) there was an expert archer named Zhangsun Cheng (Zhǎng sūn shèng 长孙晟). One day he went hunting together with a friend. Suddenly they saw two vultures fighting for a piece of meat high in the air. His friend handed him two arrows, and said, " Can you shoot down both vultures?" Zhangsun Cheng dffortlessly killed both vultures with only one arrow.This recorded episode became known as Yi-jian-shuang-diao, similar to the statement getting two birds with one stone. The expression is said of getting two separate results in one go and is a compliment of one’s outstanding achievement of succeeding in several tasks simultaneously with sill and talent. It is the expression for achieve a dual purpose.

  
The Foolish Old Man of the North Mountain, nearly ninety years of age, lived behind two high mountains. He was unhappy about the fact that the mountains blocked his way to the south, so he called the whole family to level the two mountains.While they were working, The Wise Old Man at the River Bend stopped the old man. He laughed and said, "How unwise you are! At your age, old and feeble as you are, you cannot even remove one hair on the mountain, let alone so much earth and so many rocks!"

In the Han Dynasty (hàn cháo 汉朝), there was a Taoist called Wei Boyang who wrote a book on the making of pills of immortality. In this book there is the following line:” Fish eyes can’t be passed off as pearls, and bitter flea-bane can’t pretend to be tea.” Fish eyes look like pears, but are valueless.This idiom is used to mean passing off the sham as the genuine.

In the Han Dynasty (hàn cháo 汉朝), there was a tiny country called Yelang (yè lǎng 夜郎) on the southwestern border. Small though it was, its ruler was quite proud of his country, thinking it big and powerful. Once, a Han envoy visited Yelang. The ruler asked him: "Which is bigger, Han or Yelang?" Later this idiom came to be used to refer to those who are capable of nothing yet are conceited.