In the Northern Song Dynasty  (běi sòng 北宋, 960－1127AD),Xie Wuyi (xiè wú yì 谢无逸) and Pan Dalin (pān dà lín 潘大临) were good friends and both crazy about poem writing. Though they were not in the same province,they made good use of correspondence for the poetries exchange. At that time,life was pretty hard for Pan Dalin,he was down and out,struggling a living hardly by borrowing from others.

Once upon a time there were six blind men who lived in a village in India. Every day they went to the road nearby and stood there begging. They had often heard of elephants, but they had never seen one, for being blind, how could they?

In the Warring States Period (zhàn guó 战国), the State of Qin besieged the capital of the State of Zhao. Duke Pingyuan of Zhao planned to ask the ruler of the State of Chu personally for assistance. He wanted to select a capable man to go with him. A man called Mao Sui (máo suì 毛遂) volunteered. When the negoti-actions between the two states were stalled because the ruler of Chu hesitated to send troops, Mao Sui approached him, brandishing a sword. At that, the ruler of Chu agreed to help Zhao, against Qin. This idiom means to recommend oneself.

During the Warring States Period (zhàn guó 战国,481 - 386BC),there was a handsome government official named Zou Ji  (zōu jì 邹忌) who lived in the kindom of Qi. One day,he said to his wife,"everyone said that Mr.Shu (xú gōng 徐公) ,from the Northern city is extremly handsome. Who is better-looking, he or me?” His wife answered,"Of course you are.” Zou Ji posed the same question to his maidservant,and then to the guest who came to his house.Both of them answered that he was better-looking of the two.

Duke Jai was a Han dynasty (hàn cháo 汉朝) government official. Because he held a very high-ranking and pwerful position, many of his friends, relatives, and even acquaintances whom he barely knew often went to call on him.