From: pedt@so.manygiggl.es   
      
   In article <4cd1d5e7-9a35-4be5-9b43-ede9fc1030ad@googlegroups.com>,   
   chris.sturdy@lineone.net says...   
   >   
   > On Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 8:49:11 AM UTC, Pedt wrote:   
   > > There's a lot of poetic Chinese idioms called chengyu that don't   
   > > actually mean what they appear to do - one of the idioms for sex (there   
   > > are a lot of them) literally translates to "Rainclouds over Wushan".   
   > >   
   > > Another, for seeing someone naked, literally translates to "Saw colour   
   > > unvarnished"   
   > >   
   > > Amused me that they are anagrams :-   
   > >   
   > > Saw colour unvarnished. ~ Rainclouds over Wushan.   
   > >   
   >   
   > Great post! Is it really a coincidence or was the translator pulling your   
   'chain' :-)   
      
   Thanks.   
      
   Yes, really is a coincidence.   
      
   Quick explanation: Chengyu are quite old sayings from poetry or folk   
   tales. Some delicate, some quite spicy[1], some practical, some you have   
   to think sideways. 'kan le se xui' comes from a poem about seeing   
   concubines bathing naked on a visit to an important ship builder, the   
   'se' (colour) comes from seeing lower body hair :)   
      
   Drop 'yushan yanyu' into a conversation and I guarantee most people will   
   not think you are going to visit part of the Yangzhe River.   
      
   Mandarin is big on euphemisms - even now a pregancy outside marriage   
   would be called 'sheng mi zhu chengshu fan' literally 'Uncooked rice was   
   cooked to boiled rice'.   
      
   [1] 'ganchi liehuo' is probably the spiciest and means "raging fire and   
   dry wood'.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)