‘Passing your debts onto the next generation’ — Phrase of the Week
An idiom about hard work paying off is adapted to describe how a new mortgage product will pass debt payoffs onto the next generation.
Our Phrase of the Week is: Passing your debts onto the next generation (愚公还贷 yúgōng huándài).
The context
Some banks in the cities of Nanning, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Beijing have extended the upper age limit on mortgages up to 90 years old, according to Chinese media reports.
Internet users in China have invented a whole raft of new idiomatic puns to criticize the policy. The puns are based on the character for debt (贷 dài), which is pronounced the same as the word for generation (代 dài).
The most common pun is 传宗接贷 (chuánzōng jiēdài), which translates as “passing debts from generation to generation,” instead of the original idiom, which translates as “continuing the bloodline” (传宗接代 chuánzōng jiēdài).
Another newly invented idiom was a popular comment on social media:
In the past, the Foolish Old Man moved mountains to secure a better life for his descendants. But now he starts repaying the loan while he is alive, but passes endless debt onto the next generation.
以前愚公移山，子孙无穷尽也，现在愚公还贷，子孙无穷尽也。
Yǐqián yúgōng yíshān, zǐsūn wú qióngjìn yě, xiànzài yúgōng huándài, zǐsūn wú qióngjìn yě.
And with that, we have our Phrase of the Week.
What it means
The story The Foolish Old Man Moving Mountains (愚公移山 yúgōng yíshān) is a well-known Chinese fable and a four-character idiom.
The fable tells the story of a 90-year-old man who lived near two mountains, Wangwu Mountain (王屋山 wángwū shān) and Taihang Mountain (太行山 tàiháng shān).
Frustrated with being cut off from the outside world by the two peaks, the old man decided to move the mountains to create a better life for his family and their future generations. For years, he dug out earth by hand, with nothing but a hoe and a small basket.
When questioned about his plan, the man replied he may not be able to “move the mountains” in his lifetime, but through hard work, he, his children, and their children would eventually remove the mountain and create a better life for their family. As luck would have it, the gods overheard this story and were so impressed that they moved the mountains for him.
In modern Chinese, the idiom about the Foolish Old Man is a metaphor for perseverance and dedication, no matter how hard or impossible the task at hand is.
Anyone in China will also know the following eight-character idiom associated with the story:
The perpetuation of sons and grandsons will go on forever.
子子孙孙，无穷匮也。
Zǐzǐ sūnsūn wúqióng kuìyě.
The new idiom criticizing the increase of the upper age limit of mortgages is a clever play on words. Instead of a 90-year-old man working for his future generations for an infinitely better life, mortgage customers and their next generations face a lifetime of debt if they live to that age:
The Foolish Old Man repays debts and his future generations inherit them, remaining forever poor.
愚公还贷，子孙无穷尽也。
Yúgōng huándài, zǐsūn wú qióngjìn yě.
