Monkey Tale

(Read and Think Like Chinese)

哭断肠 (ku du` chang) is translated in English bilingual dictionary as crying, weeping or wailing. The actual meaning comes from a story in ancient China time.

There was a hunter who loved to catch monkey alive and kept them at home to be tortured for entertainment. He used to hunt for food but would bring the monkey home alive almost all the time.

One day, the hunter caught a small monkey alive, while walking home, he noticed that there was a big monkey following him all the way home. The hunter had a wicked idea. He hung the small monkey on the tree and enjoyed the pity look of the big monkey. This big monkey seemed to be very close to the small monkey and the hunter presumed that the small monkey must be the son. Hours passed, the big monkey showed and gestured to beg for the release of his son but the hunter ignored its gesture. Instead he beat the small monkey so hard that the small monkey finally died. One seeing this, the big monkey began jumping up and down, crying , wailing and screaming. Finally the big monkey climbed up a tree and jumped to its death.

The hunter brought the two monkeys into the house, cut open their abdomens and found that the big monkey’s intestines were broken into small fractions about an inch in length. This meant that the big monkey didn’t die because of the fall but it was so sad that his intestines had been broken into small pieces. From then on the saying of 哭断肠 (lu du`chang) is being used to describe extreme sadness that one would endure. The direct translation should be ‘cry till the intestines broke into pieces’