Chinese proverb, wise proverbs — How to say ” Lookers-on see most of the game” in Chinese: 旁观者清，当局者迷。Pang2 guan1 zhe5 qing1, dang1 ju2 zhe5 mi2. Pang2 (旁 adverb, from the side) guan1 (观 verb, to look) zhe5 (者 pronoun, the person who) qing1 (清 adjective, clear), dang1 (当adverb, at the middle of, or during) ju2 (局 noun, match, as in a Chinese Chess game) zhe5 (者 pronoun, the person who) mi2 (迷 adjective, confused).
The proverb originally means “Whose who watch from the side of a chess game are clear, while whose who are at the middle of the game are confused. So, the proverb is generally applied to ” If one is personally involved in something, it is easy to blind oneself to the truth. However, for people are not involved in it, it is naturally for onlookers to see things more clearly.”
Let’s learn the usage of subject, predicate structure. In this sentence, the structure is:
subject + predicate, subject + predicate
旁观者 + 清 ，当局者 +迷
Those who look from the side + clear, those who are in games + confused
Subject and predicate are the two main parts of a sentence, predicate modifies subject. In English, you must have a verb in the predicate. Unlike English, the Chinese predicate doesn’t necessarily need to have a verb. Like this sentence, we don’t see verbs, but adjectives.
In Chinese sentence structure, sometimes, subject is a topic and the predicate is a comment on it.
清 Qing1 and 迷 mi2 are antonyms. There is a common colloquial phrase called mi2 mi2 hu2 hu2 （迷迷糊糊， in a daze or bewildered), and the opposite of it, we have qing1 qing1 chu3 chu3 (清清楚楚 , very clear）. Isn’t it nice that we can always pair phrases or things up?
If you are a regular visitor, you know that I like to end my post with a song:) if I could find one. If you like Jackie Chan, then, surely you will love this song. It is called Ming2 ming2 bai2 bai2 wo3 de5 xin1 明明白白我的心 (so clear is my heart)。Ming2 ming2 bai2 bai2 is synonym of qing1 qing1 chu3 chu3 (清清楚楚 , very clear). See the English translation and info about Jackie Chan under Chinese songs category.