May you live in interesting times

"May you live in interesting times" is an English expression purported to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. Despite being so common in English as to be known as "the Chinese curse", the saying is apocryphal, and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced.

Origins

Despite being widely attributed as a Chinese curse, there is no equivalent expression in Chinese.^[1] The nearest related Chinese expression is "宁為太平犬，莫做亂离人" (nìng wéi tàipíng quǎn, mò zuò luàn lí rén), which is usually translated as "Better to be a dog in a peaceful time, than to be a human in a chaotic (warring) period."^[2] The expression originates from Volume 3 of the 1627 short story collection by Feng Menglong, Stories to Awaken the World.^[3]

Evidence that the phrase was in use as early as 1936 is provided in a memoir written by Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, the British Ambassador to China in 1936 and 1937, and published in 1949. He mentions that before he left England for China in 1936, a friend told him of a Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times".^[4]

Frederic René Coudert, Jr. also recounts having heard the phrase at the time:

Some years ago, in 1936, I had to write to a very dear and honoured friend of mine, who has since died, Sir Austen Chamberlain, brother of the present Prime Minister, and I concluded my letter with a rather banal remark "that we were living in an interesting age." Evidently he read the whole letter, because by return mail he wrote to me and concluded as follows: "Many years ago I learned from one of our diplomats in China that one of the principal Chinese curses heaped upon an enemy is, 'May you live in an interesting age.'" "Surely", he said, "no age has been more fraught with insecurity than our own present time." That was three years ago.^[5]

The phrase is again described as a "Chinese curse" in an article published in Child Study: A Journal of Parent Education in 1943.^[6]

Popularization and usage

• The saying was used by Robert F. Kennedy in his Day of Affirmation Address in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1966.^[7]
• The saying was also used by Hillary Clinton in her memoirs Living History, in 2003.^[8]
• In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the novel set in the "Aurient" (Orient) is named Interesting Times.
• Interesting Times is the autobiography of the historian Eric Hobsbawm.
• Writer George Packer calls his New Yorker blog^[9] "Interesting Times".
• The saying was used in TV series Star Trek: Voyager season 1, episode 6, The Cloud by the character Harry Kim.
• Beginning in early 2016, Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast host Scott Aukerman began using an altered form of this saying -- "May you lead an interesting life" -- and referring to it as an old Chinese proverb, possibly ironically. ^[10]
• Donald Sutherland's character in the film Disclosure says during a speech to his company, "The Chinese say, 'May you live in interesting times.' Well this has been the most interesting merger since my second marriage." ^[11]

See also

• Chinese word for "crisis"

References

1. Bryan W. Van Norden. Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2011; ISBN 9781603844697), p. 53, sourcing Fred R. Shapiro, ed., The Yale Book of Quotations (New Haven: Yale University Press 2006), p. 669. Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine.
2. The Grammarphobia Blog: May you live in interesting times
3. Feng Menglong (1627). Stories to Awaken the World (醒世恆言) (in Chinese) 3. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
4. Knatchbull-Hugessen, Hughe: Diplomat in Peace and War, John Murray 1949 p. ix books.google
5. Frederic R. Coudert Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Columbia University 1940, p. 269 books.google
6. Child Study: A Journal of Parent Education, Volume 21, p. 52 books.google.
7. "Robert F. Kennedy's Day of Affirmation Address, Cape Town, South Africa". Retrieved 2008-08-03.
8. "Living History, Hillary Rodham Clinton" (PDF).
9. George Packer. "Interesting Times". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
10. http://earwolf.com/episode/prayer-orgy/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
11. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Disclosure_(film)

External links

• Stephen E. DeLong (May 5, 1998). "Get a(n interesting) life!". Archived from the original on 2004-04-04. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
• "Origin of Phrase: May You Live In Interesting Times". Archived from the original on 2007-10-16. Retrieved 2008-08-03.