The Ancestor's Wisdom - Proverbs

 
 

Let's do whatever we can when the time comes. If we have no rice, let's cook the sweet potato soup just as well.

  
 

Let's do whatever we can when the time comes. If we have no rice, let's cook the sweet potato soup just as well.

 "Let's do whatever we can when the time comes" means "When the time comes, we shall do whatever we can do then.". "If we have no rice, let's cook the sweet potato soup just as well." means "Since we do not have rice to cook, we shall cook the sweet potato soup to feed ourselves." This proverb demonstrates a man's attitude in solving problems by adapting himself to the environment when facing uncertainties.  
 
 

Sweet potato does not fear to get rotten when falling onto the ground; it only wishes its branches and leaves to prosper and hand down from generation to generation.

  
 

Sweet potato does not fear to get rotten when falling onto the ground; it only wishes its branches and leaves to prosper and hand down from generation to generation.

This proverb symbolizes the spirit of the Taiwanese people who strive upward humbly, are not afraid of setbacks, grow up from the ground without getting muddy, and are solidly rooted to the earth.  
 
 

Stingy sweet potato disperses over the wall.

  
 

Stingy sweet potato disperses over the wall.

 This proverb describes that the rotten part of sweet potato extends to the whole. "Disperses over the wall" means disseminating to another storage room. It implies that when one man does something indecent, he ruins the reputation of the whole group. It carries the same meaning as the proverb "One small dot of rat shit spoils the whole bowl of congee."  
 
 

To cook sweet potato at the end of the chimney.

  
 

To cook sweet potato at the end of the chimney.

 To cook sweet potato at the end of the chimney indicates a man's immature behavior, just like sweet potato that turns out half raw when cooked at the end of the chimney. There is another way to explain this proverb. Many of our ancestors suffered from smoking opium. When someone was going through the intolerable mental and physical disturbances when being forced to quit opium, people had to ask him to climb to the roof cooking sweet potato and to pretend to smoke opium.  
 
 

Sweet potato of 5 catties becomes 81 taels when rotten.

  
 

Sweet potato of 5 catties becomes 81 taels when rotten.

 In early days, the "scale" is used for the unit of purchasing sweet potato. One scale is one hundred Taiwanese catties, and one Taiwanese catty is sixteen taels. Owing to the fact that farmers sell sweet potato mostly during the leisure time after harvesting, it has been quite a while since harvesting and as such it is easy to get rotten and smells stingy. There should be 80 taels for Sweet potato of 5 catties, but this proverb says there are 81 taels when rotton. It implies sweet potato is very cheap.  
 
 

If one is in bad luck, you will harvest cucumbers after planting seeds of sponge gourds; and you will harvest bitter gourds after planting seeds of sweet potatoes.

  
 

If one is in bad luck, you will harvest cucumbers after planting seeds of sponge gourds; and you will harvest bitter gourds after planting seeds of sweet potatoes.

 When you are in bad luck, everything will turn out to be against your wish. Since planting sponge gourd seeds is in no way to harvest cucumbers and planting of sweet potato seeds is not likely to harvest bitter gourds, it means if you are in bad luck, you will fail even you are sure of what you are doing.  
 
 

One sweet potato stick equals to three pieces of rice.

  
 

　One sweet potato stick equals to three pieces of rice.

 This proverb is to describe the preciousness of white rice by demonstrating the cheapness of sweet potato.  
 
 

The bad harvest of mountain planted sweet potato is better than field planted one at any time.

 
 

The bad harvest of mountain planted sweet potato is better than field planted one at any time.

 This is a Hakka proverb. It means the sweet potato planted in the mountain is always more delicious than that planted in the field.  
 
 

Sweet potato is not equivalent to five cereals.

  
 

Sweet potato is not equivalent to five cereals.

 This proverb by appearance means that one does not treat sweet potato as one of the five cereals. It goes without saying that sweet potato is not one of the cereals. Nonetheless, this proverb emphasizes that, during the hungry days, sweet potato can be used as the main food; but during the good harvest days, people are inclined to ignore sweet potato. This proverb insinuates human nature. People tend to treat a person as a VIP if and when they want to exploit him, and people tend to treat him as garbage when he is of no value to them.  
 
 

One does not tell taro from sweet potato.

  
 

One does not tell taro from sweet potato.

 One cannot even tell the difference between taro and sweet potato. This is used to satirize one's foolishness and ignorance.