Attributed to Ancient Chinese curse
May you live in interesting times.
No. An authentic Chinese saying of this form has not been found, and the English trail starts in 1936.
Source line
No matching passage.
Sir Austen Chamberlain, speech reported in The Yorkshire Post, 21 March 1936
No. "May you live in interesting times" is not an ancient Chinese curse. Fred R. Shapiro, in the Yale Book of Quotations (2006), records that no authentic Chinese saying of this form has been found. The earliest strong match in English is a speech by Sir Austen Chamberlain, reported in The Yorkshire Post on 21 March 1936. He was citing a British diplomat who had served in China. He was not quoting a classical text we can point to, because no such text has been shown.
There is a real Chinese sentence with a different point, in Feng Menglong's story collection of 1627: 宁为太平犬，不做乱世人. It means "better a dog in peace than a man in chaos." That wish runs the other way. It prefers a dull peace to a life lived in disorder. The 1936 speech, the diplomat's remark, and a curse that wishes trouble on someone are not this line. Cite Chamberlain's reported speech if you need a source. Do not call the English sentence Chinese, and do not call it ancient.
If the button does not copy, select the line above.
Confidence: high. An exact passage is in the cited edition, or a named source documents the origin. How confidence works
The newsletter · 周刊
There is no sign-up form yet, and we collect no email addresses. Until the letter opens, take the free 36 Stratagems PDF.
Download the free PDF