As summer approaches in China, the annual frustration against incessant mosquitoes and other bugs now out in force is just beginning. But in ancient Chinese literature and poems, insects played all manner of roles, form slanderous mosquitoes to sly flies to self-destructive moths. Many sayings and stories involving insects became four-character chengyu (成語, chéng yǔ), some still in use today to describe, for example, veteran artists and inexperienced workers. Here are some useful chengyu involving insects, and the stories behind them:

落筆成蠅 luò bǐ chéng yíng
Turn an ink blot into a fly

While third-century artist Cao Buxing (曹不興, cáo bù xīng) was decorating a silk screen (屏風, píng fēng) in the palace of Sun Quan (孫權, sūn quán), ruler of the Wu kingdom, he accidentally dropped his brush, leaving an ink blot on the white silk. After some quick thinking, Cao turned this blotch (污點, wū diǎn) into a fly (蒼蠅, cāng ying) to cover the mistake. When the king came to check the work, Cao's "insect" was so realistic, Sun tried to shoo it away of the screen (權疑其真，以手彈之 quán yí qí zhēn , yǐ shǒu tán zhī). This idiom thus came to be used as a compliment for excellent artists (形容繪畫技術十分高超, xíng róng huì huà jì shù shí fēn gāo chāo).

來源：The World of Chinese
編輯：萬月英