A few years ago, webnovel translator and author, Deathblade, uploaded a video promising to tell us the “shocking truth” about the common Chinese idiom to “have eyes but fail to recognize Mount Tai”. In the video he says:

The shocking truth is that the Taishan in the phrase you yan bu shi tai shan is NOT Mount Tai. It is not the mountain that’s famous in China. It’s actually referring to a person.

He seems quite sure of himself. Indeed he leaves no room for argument:

So, in the phrase ‘have eyes but fail to recognize Mount Tai’, it really shouldn’t be Mount Tai, it should just be a guy, Taishan…

…and considering you’re talking about a mountain, to use ‘Mount Tai’ also kind of makes sense, even though it’s not correct.

Deathblade is not simply suggesting that one or both of these stories might possibly be the origin of the idiom. He’s saying that they for sure are the origin and that translating taishan as “Mount Tai” is wrong.

But what makes him so sure?

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