名落孫山

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Chinese

name; fame; to describe
name; fame; to describe; place
 
to fall; to drop (behind); leave behind Sun Shan (person's name)
trad. (名落孫山)
simp. (名落孙山)
Literally: “to fall behind Sun Shan (who ranked last on the admitted candidates)”.

Etymology

A story during the Song dynasty:

滑稽才子鄉人鄉人失意鄉人得失:「解名盡處賢郎。」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
滑稽才子乡人乡人失意乡人得失:「解名尽处贤郎。」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Song dynasty, poet Fan Gongcheng (范公偁), 《過庭錄》
Wú rén Sūn Shān, huájī cáizǐ yě. Fù jǔ tā jùn, xiāngrén tuō yǐ zǐ xié wǎng. Xiāngrén zǐ shīyì, Shān zhuì bǎngmò. Xiān guī, xiāngrén wèn qí zǐ déshī, Shān yuē: “Jièmíng jìnchù shì Sūn Shān, xiánláng gèng zài Sūn Shān wài.”
Sun Shan, a talented and humorous scholar from the Wu region, went to a different prefecture for the imperial examination. A fellow villager sent his son to go with Sun for the exam. When exam results were announced, the son of the fellow villager failed to make it in the list of successful candidates, while Sun Shan was the last name on the list. When they returned, the villager asked Sun how his son had performed, and Sun replied with a poem:
 My humble name appeared at the bottom of the list of successful candidates,
 While your dear son ranked behind me.

Pronunciation


Idiom

名落孫山

  1. (figurative) to fail an exam; to fall behind (in a competition)