Stories Behind 100 Chinese Idioms

"Moistening each other with saliva" does not mean what you might think, in the richly evocative language of Chinese idioms. These 100 examples reach for their meaning deep into literature, philosophy, and history, and the average learner needs exactly this kind of book to understand. Thorough and well-written, with enough footnotes and bibliographic references to satisfy the most ambitious student. In simplified characters with pinyin and English. (By the way, it means "helping each other as best as you can, given limited means." But we wouldn't have known that without the book!)