The proverbs of any country or culture contain the wisdom accumulated by its people over countless generations. China is the world’s oldest continuous civilization, with over 3,000 years of history. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that the Chinese language is a particularly rich source of wisdom. Arguably no other language or culture has such a huge treasure trove of proverbs and popular sayings that comment on every aspect of the human experience. There are as many as 20,000 literary idioms and tens of thousands of popular maxims and sayings, in addition to the pithy and profound quotes to be gleaned from three millennia of Chinese philosophy and literature.