Words and expressions in a language come along with people’s daily lives, and Chinese is no exception. The word “stuff” which means “things” in Chinese is made up of two characters dongxi, meaning east and west. It sounds like when you put east and west together, you get dongxi.
Why is stuff called dongxi? One of the explanations comes from the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, Dongjing, the east capital, and Xijing, the west capital, were the places where people could buy the treasures from all over the world. Dongjing was Luoyang, and Xijing was Chang’an City. People went to Luoyang and Chang’an City to buy goods, and they were called “buying dong” and “buying xi”. Later, buying goods was collectively called “buying dongxi”.
Another explanation comes from a story. Long long ago, there was a well-educated scholar who always asked “why”. One day he met a friend in the street who was carrying a basket to buy some stuff. He wondered why he was buying dongxi instead of “south and north”. After thinking about it for a period of time, he concluded that in ancient China, wood stands for east, gold stands for west, fire stands for south and water stands for north. We can put wood and gold, not fire or water, into a bamboo basket. So people say dongxi instead of south and north. And this expression is used until today.
【小题1】Getting dongxi sounds like you put east and west together.【小题2】When people went shopping in Xijing, it was called “buying xi”.
【小题3】People couldn’t buy the treasures from all over the world in Luoyang and Chang’an City.
【小题4】In ancient China, wood stands for south, and gold stands for north.
【小题5】The expression dongxi is still used today.
