《施氏食狮史》

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮市。是时，适施氏适是市。施氏视十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，施氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，施氏始试食十狮尸。食时，始识十狮实十石狮尸。试释是事。

shī shì shí shī shǐ

shí shì shī shì shī shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī. shì shí shí shì shì shì shī.shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì. shì shí, shì shī shì shì shì. shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì. shǐ shì shí shī shì shì. shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shí shì.shí shì shī, shì shǐ shì shì shí shì. shí shì shì, shì shǐ shì shí shí shī shī. shí shí, shǐ shì shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī. shì shì shì shì.

这样类似的游戏之作还有好几篇，是由赵元任做出的。一般认为，包括一些学者在内，认为赵元任是希望用这个例子来证明汉字拼音化带来的荒谬。

而事实上正相反。赵元任支持汉字拼音化，认为这种类似的极端例子在生活中是不可能出现的。用这种在现实口语中根本不会出现的情况，来反面证明汉字拼音化的可能性。

赵元任在叙述了这个例子和包括《季姬击鸡记》等3个自己创造的例子以后说的话：“这些当然是极端的例子……如果你要是写语言，当然不会有问题。因为你写的要是不够清楚（假定你把语言里的声音全写出来而仍旧不够清楚），那你本来话就没有说清楚。不久以前，《今日世界》（第168期）刊登了一段我的谈话，大部分都刊登得对，就是最后几句话，说到我说关于罗马字的拼音文字的用处是很有限制的，那大概是访问的时候，时间匆促了，没有弄清楚，结果刊登出来的那个说法，跟我的意见刚好相反……在多数文字用处的场合……我觉得现在就可以用国语罗马字拼音文字……我们有一套向来沿用的公式，我们还没有制定出新公式来，还没有人想到有这个必要，给他制定成现代化的一种语言，能够说了就可以听得懂的……心理上还没有进展到相当的程度，完全不是文字学的技术上的问题。”

可见，赵元任的意思很容易被大家误解和歪曲，而且几乎是从当年的记者开始，就想当然地把自己的观点强加给赵元任，把他本来的意思完全颠倒了。

Many beginners learning Chinese may have encountered遭遇this curse咒语: “四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十” (sì shì sì, shí shì shí, shísì shì shísì, sìshí shì sìshí), which translates to “four is four, ten is ten, fourteen is fourteen, forty is forty.” Chinese is certainly a language packed with homophones同音字, particularly特别for those not practiced in distinguishing辨别between tones. If you survived the last tongue twister绞扭器and didn’t at all bite your tongue, try the following advanced version版本：

If you are curious好奇心旺盛的about what on earth it could possibly mean, a translation is available, though, well, it does sound a bit like gibberish急促而不清楚的话at times. 

The Story of the Stone Grotto Poet Eating Lions 

Stone Grotto洞室post桩Shih by name was fond of lions and swore发誓swear的过去式he would eat ten lions. The man from time to time went to the market to look at lions.When, at ten o’clock, he went to the market, it happened that ten lions went to the market. At this time the man looked at the ten lions and, relying信任on the moment of ten stone arrows箭矢, caused the ten lions to depart from this world. The man picked these ten lions’ bodies and went to the stone grotto.The stone grotto was wet and he made the servant仆人try to wipe擦，拭the stone grotto. The stone grotto having been wiped, the man began to try to eat the ten lions’ bodies. When he ate them, he began to realize实现that those ten lions’ bodies were really ten stone lions’ bodies. Now he  began to understand that that was the fact of the case状况. Try and explain解释this matter.

The author作家of the text was Zhao Yuanren (赵元任). As the “father of Chinese linguistics语言学”, he speaks eight nation’s languages as well as 33 Chinese dialects方言.  But besides his unparalleled无与伦比的linguistic语言学talent天资, Zhao also has a genius for whimsicality异想天开的. The “story of eating lions” is not the only gimmick鬼花招he played with, and I’m not just referring参看to three other tongue twisters he wrote with syllables音节“ji”, ”xi” and ”yi” (see the bottom of this post). 

One of his proudest accomplishments成就was the translation of Lewis Carroll’s刘易斯·卡罗尔Alice in Wonderland into Chinese, and during his six decades十年of teaching career生涯as the professor教授of physics物理, mathematics数学, Chinese music and Chinese linguistics in Harvard, Cornell and UC Berkeley哈佛大学、康奈尔大学和加州大学伯克利分校, one of his most delightful可爱的feats功绩on the lecture文化circuit巡回was to record巡回on tape a discourse演说of English (a passage, a poem) uttered backwards. The tape was then played in reverse to reveal perfectly natural English pronunciation, and he would be laughing in tears when looking at his astounded students. 

Story of Stone Grotto Poet Eating Lionswas written originally not for fun, but as a weapon in the “revolution of Chinese characters”. The phonetic letters in Chinese—pinyin (拼音, pīn yīn) was an invention in modern times. In the past, Chinese ancestors used neither pinyin nor punctuation marks. Zhao developed the National Romanisation (Zhao Yuan Ren’sRomanisation), a phonetic alphabet designed for Chinese language, an effort that met huge obstacles from conservative literati who urged to keep the traditional language “clean” from the western Latin letters. The four stories, written with quasi homophones, were thus to prove the relative independence between the tones and meanings of the Chinese language. Zhao’s romanisation was adopted nationwide in 1928, which through much simplification evolved into the system we are using today.

A few more of Zhao’s works:

jì jī jī jī jì

jì jī jì, jí jī, jī jí jí jī. jí jī jī jī, jì jī jí jī jì jì jī. jī jì jì, jī jī jí, jì jī jì, jí jī jī, jī jí, jì jī jǐ, jì jī jí, jí jí jī jī jī, jī jí jī jǐ jì, jì jí jī, jī jī jí jǐ jī, jì jī jí jí jī jī jī, jī jì jí, jì jī, jī, jí jì jì jī jī jī jì.

 《季姬击鸡记》

季姬寂，集鸡，鸡即棘鸡。棘鸡饥叽，季姬及箕稷济鸡。鸡既济，跻姬笈，季姬忌，急咭鸡，鸡急，继圾几，季姬急，即籍箕击鸡，箕疾击几伎，伎即齑，鸡叽集几基，季姬急极屐击鸡，鸡既殛，季姬激，即记。

Reminiscences of Famished

Chickens Assembled on the Ridge of a (Flying) Machine Chick, chick, chickens! Chickens, chick, chick! Several chickens squeezed and assembled on the machine’s ridge. The machine was extremely swift; the chickens extremely famished. The chickens surmised their skill was sufficient to strike some perch. The machine having crossed the suburbs of Chi. The chickens reckoned the swift machine should stir up several perch. The machine was swift; the perch extremely scared. Hastily they squeezed and assembled in the interstices of stone steps. Subsequently the perch’s traces were extremely silent, silent. Subsequently the chickens, since still famished, said chick, chick! 

xī xì xī

xī xì xī, xĭ xī xì. xí xī xī xī xí xī xĭ, xí xī xì xì xí xĭ xī. xī xī xī, xì xí xī. xí xī xī xī xī xī xì. xī xī xī xī xĭ xí xī. 

《熙戏犀》

西溪犀，喜嬉戏。席熙夕夕携犀徙，席熙细细习洗犀。犀吸溪，戏袭熙。席熙嘻嘻希息戏。惜犀嘶嘶喜袭熙。

Hsi

Hsi Plays with the Rhinoceros West Creek Rhinoceros enjoys romping and playing. Hsi Hsi every morning takes rhinoceros to play. Hsi Hsi meticulously practices washing rhinoceros. Rhinoceros sucks creek, playfully attacks Hsi. Hsi Hsi, laughing, hopes to stop playing. Too bad rhinoceros, neighing, enjoys attacking Hsi.

yí yí

yí yí yĭ yĭ, yì yì, yí yì yì, yí yì yī. yī yĭ yí yĭ yĭ yí yī yí. yī yĭ yì yì yì yì yĭ. yì yĭ yì, yĭ yí yì. yī yĭ yì yĭ yì yí yī yí, yí yì yĭ yī. yí yí yí, yĭ yí yī yí yī. yī yī yí yī, yì yí yí. yì! yī yĭ yí yí yī yí yì, yì yì yĭ;yí yĭ yí yī yí yī, yì yì yì yĭ yĭ!

《漪姨》

漪姨倚椅，悒悒，疑异疫，宜诣医。医以宜以蚁胰医姨。医以亿弋弋亿蚁。亿蚁殪，蚁胰溢。医以亿蚁溢胰医姨，姨疫以医。姨怡怡，以夷衣贻医。医衣夷衣，亦怡怡。噫！医以蚁胰医姨疫，亦异矣；姨以夷衣贻医，亦益异已矣!

Reminiscences of How Aunt I was Cured

Aunt I felt depressed. She changed her clothes and reclined on a chair. Her idea was to suspect of some strange sickness. She should visit a doctor. The doctor’s idea was that one should treat the aunt’s sickness with the pancress of ants. He took 100,000,000 arrows and hunted 100,000,000 ants. The ants one by one died. Their pancreases overflowed. The doctor removed the pancreases and treated the aunt’s sickness with them. The aunt’s sickness was thereby cured. 

She was joyful and presented her doctor with a foreign garment. The doctor put on the foreign garment and was joyful, too. Yea! the doctor took 100,000,000 ants’ pancreases to cure Aunt I’s sickness, wasn’t that wonderful? Aunt I presented the doctor with a foreign garment, wasn’t that even more wonderful, too?