Help with an Idiom

[davidsamuel]

四邻八舍

"Neighbors all about eight sheds" is what Babelfish puts it as.

Here is the entire paragraph from which it came.

"这样的单身汉，每逢新搬到一个地方，四邻八

舍虽然完全不了解他的性情如何，见解如何，

可是，既然这样的一条真理早已在人们心目中

根深蒂固，因此人们总是把他看作自己某一个

女儿理所应得的一笔财产。"

And here is what the paragraph is supposed to be, since this is a bilingual edition of a book:

"However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. "

To see it in its full context, go to the bilingual edition of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" here http://www.ocrat.com/biling/pridprej/chap0101.html and this is the second paragraph.

[wendy]

Cited from Pride and Prejudice?

[xuezhongwen]

You must have heard the phrase 四面八方, si4 mian4 ba1 fang1, yeah, there are numbers 4 and 8 here, but those are more semaphoric than real, it just means "all directions", key here is '面' and '方' AND '方面' all have meanings of 'direction'.

Similarly, 四邻八舍 just means "all neighbors", where 邻 means adjcent, neighboring, 舍 means "room, house".

In the chapter you quoted, it is translated as "the surrounding families" which is adquate.

[Quest]

You must have heard the phrase 四面八方, si4 mian4 ba1 fang1, yeah, there are numbers 4 and 8 here, but those are more semaphoric than real, it just means "all directions", key here is '面' and '方' AND '方面' all have meanings of 'direction'.

I think 4 and 8 are associated with directions on the chinese compass.

[xuezhongwen]

yes, they are, that's why 四 and 八 are used as semaphors here, there are other phrases similar to this kind of formation:

四平八稳

四通八达

四亭八当

四时八节