So, please tell us in the "Casual Conversations on Words" column: 1. Is the phrase "Cleverness shows on one's face" an idiom or a proverb? 2. How should the explanation from the dictionary mentioned above be interpreted?
Thank you very much.
Reply:
1. "Cleverness shows on one's face" - idiom or proverb?
"Wisdom is clearly visible on the face" (variant "Wisdom manifests on the face") is a variant of the saying "A wise person's wisdom is clearly visible on their face." "Wisdom is clearly visible on the face, crippled limbs are clearly visible" is a synonymous variant with an additional parallel clause. All these versions are proverbs. They are classified as proverbs because they represent the accumulated knowledge and experience of the people in the field of "physiognomy" (the art of physiognomy). These variants are recorded in books published before 1945, such as: "Nam Am Su Loai" (Vu Cong Thanh, 1925); "Nam Ngan Chich Cam" (Vu Quang San, 1918); "Proverbs and Folk Songs" (Nguyen Van Ngoc, 1928)...
2. What does "cleverness showing on one's face" mean?
Folklore says: "The heart shapes the appearance" (A person's character, good or bad, is often reflected in their appearance); "Judging a book by its cover" (The face fully reveals a person's personality; to know a person's demeanor and virtue, look at their face); "Judging a person by their face" (You can name a person and assess their character by looking at their face); "A wise person has deep black eyes, a foolish person has eyes that are half lead, half brass..."
In the book "Vietnamese Customs," under the section "Physiognomy," Phan Kế Bính offers the following explanation: "People are born with the inherent qualities of heaven and earth; some are endowed with refined qualities, others with impure ones; some are intelligent, others with crude ones. Refined and intelligent people become virtuous and kind; impure and crude people become foolish and wicked. Wise and virtuous people will enjoy wealth, luxury, longevity, and prestige, and this will manifest in their physical appearance—full, bright, and well-proportioned; foolish and wicked people will suffer poverty, hardship, misfortune, and illness, and this will manifest in their physical appearance—distorted, dark, and thin. This is the reason for the practice of physiognomy. There is a proverb that says: 'A virtuous person is reflected in their appearance.' Another saying goes: 'Wisdom is reflected in the face, lameness in the limbs.' It's the same idea."
Returning to reader Tran Nam's question.
The proverb "Wisdom is evident on the face, disability is shown in the limbs" doesn't mean that "others will recognize it" or "it's obvious without needing to be said," but rather it's a folk-based intuitive judgment: inner qualities (wisdom or foolishness) inevitably manifest in outward appearance, just as clearly as the health or disability of the limbs. In other words, this is a perspective with a physiognomic undertone: using outward appearance as a sign of character, rather than an observation about communication behavior or the ability to conceal oneself, as explained in Professor Nguyen Lan's "Dictionary of Vietnamese Idioms and Proverbs": "A wise person, even without speaking, others will know they are wise."
Hoang Trinh Son (Contributor)
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/ve-cau-tuc-ngu-nbsp-khon-don-ra-mat-284958.htm
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