Wolf's Plateau

I've been reading English stuff on Internet for quite some time, and I would say it helped improving my English quite a bit. Among all these readings, one thing that never ceases to amuse me is that I keep seeing quotes labeled as "Chinese proverbs" coming from everywhere, yet I've never heard of. Granted, I am a science student, not a major in Chinese literature or history, but I consider myself quite knowledgable about Chinese proverbs (well, at least much more than most people writing in English). So I have always been wondering if these quotes are really some proverbs that I simply don't know, translations of proverbs I know but understand differently (ancient Chinese IS vague), or just something made-up.

The problem is that I don't have a good memory. Now that I am blogging much more often, I think I can put all the "Chinese proverbs" I see in this blog. Hopefully someday I can figure out the origin of some of them.

Today's quote is from a comment on slashdot: Many laws make many criminals.

事情要从游戏说起。

在一个我本科同学聚集的半私人 BBS 上，大家谈起游戏。说到打某个游戏的人分两种风格，一是规规矩矩把同样颜色的方块都堆在一起等一次消掉的，一是随便乱放靠通配的钻石消掉某个颜色所有方块以快取胜的。

然后我的上铺不知道想起什么了，就说我是典型的第一种。其实我都不记得我是不是一直第一种风格了，毕竟第二种风格后来优势太大，我有没有跟着转型也不记得了。也许我后来对那个游戏失去兴趣，就是这个原因吧。

然后我们系版的版主，中文系锦心绣口的 inking mm，就同意说：“狼一看就是第一种。”

我看到这里两眼发黑。要知道其实版主没有见过我几面，更没有见过我打游戏。虽说她大概和我的几个好友很熟悉，听了不少有关我的故事，但我还是对这种众口铄金的行为很不满，又没什么可辩解的，只好自嘲道：“我办事刻板的形象未免也太深入人心了一点儿吧。”

然后 inking 就似乎很严肃的纠正道：“……不是刻板。整饬是一种美。”

我不敢再回了。版主实在是太抬举我了。其一，她不知为何认定我不是刻板而是整饬；其二，她以为我认得整饬这个词是什么意思……

人在异乡几近四年，可怜我的中文啊。叹叹。

【注】整饬：② 严正；严谨。《新唐书·吕諲传》：“少力于学，志行整饬。” ③ 整齐完备。张华《游猎篇》诗：“舆徒既整饬，容服丽且妍。” ——《辞海》（1999 年缩印本），夏征农等编，上海辞书出版社，第 1651 页，2000 年。