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What does the Chinese idiom "A monkey that jumped out to pluck a peach" mean? (lemy.nl)

submitted 9 months ago by Sticker@lemy.nl to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I read translations of Chinese fanfics that have a lot of obscure idioms.
I can't find the meaning of these idioms on the internet.

Maybe there are some people here who are experts in this?

The idiom from the title is one character's reflection on the people who defeated their enemies.

This character thought, "They think they're strong, but they're like the monkey that jumped out to pluck the peach."

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[–] Thisfox@sopuli.xyz 14 points 9 months ago

It has a lot of meanings.

The oldest one I know of is that of Monkey King, who in the ancient story stole and ate the peaches of immortality. He did this without any plan; in some versions he was hungry and didn't understand that it would make him immortal. This act of spontaneity also inconvenienced the peach owner, who had intended to serve the peaches to those who were worthy of them.

Since then various martial arts moves and stories and so on were named after that one little bit of the story, usually to showcase a combination of spontaneity and strength.