To Speak Like a Flowing River

During the Chin dynasty, there lived a man named Guo Shiang, who loved to read. When he was young, he spent much time pondering various aspects of daily life. As an adult, he loved to read books on Chinese philosophy, and so he became the most knowledgeable person of his time. Many people asked him to work for the government, but he very politely replied that he liked to do research, discuss current affairs, and analyze philosophical theories, and was unwilling to do anything else.

Guo Shiang was knowledgeable, eloquent, and loved to state his views. Wang Yan, the prime minister of the time, used to praise him saying, "Guo Shiang's speech is just like a river flowing down a mountain; it will never, ever dry up." People of later generations expanded this statement of Wang Yan into an idiom; a person who is very eloquent is now said to "Speak Like a Flowing River."

口若懸河

晉朝有一位很有學問的大學問家，名叫郭象。他年紀還小的時候，就展現出很高的才華，十幾歲的時候，不但已經就讀完《老子》、《莊子》等古書，而且還能一口氣背誦出來。

郭象的名聲愈來愈大，朝廷派人請他做官，他推辭不掉只好答應，於是就當上了黃門侍郎。因為他平時讀了許多書，知識非常豐富，而且他喜歡應用在日常生活中的小細節裡，所以提出的見解往往比別人深刻，而且能夠將各種道理說得很清楚，因此他受到許多人的推崇。郭象口才很好，講起話來滔滔不絕、有聲有色，大家都聽得很入神。其中有個太尉叫王衍，聽完他的的議論後感慨地說:「聽郭象說話，就好像看到瀑布流瀉下來的水，滔滔不絕，好像永遠不會停止。」