Meaning: Revealing the very thing one is attempting to conceal
Source: Folk Story
1.Long, long ago there lived a man named Chang San. He worked hard and managed to save up 300 ounces of silver. But he didn't want to keep the silver in his house for fear his hard-earned nest-egg might be stolen.
2. After thinking long and hard, Chang San decided to wait until nightfall, and under cover of darkness bury his silver at the foot of an earthen wall.
3. But he still wasn't sure the money was safe, so he racked his brains again and finally hit on what he thought was the perfect solution. Taking a sheet of paper, he wrote on it: "No 300 Ounces of Silver Buried Here" in large letters, and pasted it up over the spot where he had buried his stash.
4. When Chang San had finished, he marched away with an easy mind, sure that his silver would be safe and sound. But what do you know? Chang San's neighbor Wang Erh waited until Chang was fast asleep, and then made off with all his silver.
5. Wang Erh was as pleased as Punch with himself for being so clever, but in fact he didn't have much more sense than old Chang San. Scared that Chang would find him out, Wang Erh also pasted up a sheet of paper on the wall, and wrote on it: "Wang Erh Next Door Didn't Steal It." Ever since that day, people have used the expression "No silver buried here; Wang Erh didn't steal it" to refer to people giving themselves away in the very act of trying to hide something.
Xuan Yong-shen is a young modern ceramic artist.
1952 Born in Shanghai; as a middle school pupil he took lessons with the famous sculptor Zhang Chongren of Shanghai Art Academy.
1970 Began working as an artist and designer at a cultural center and a folk crafts studio in Qidong City, Jiangsu Province, and later as a research designer at Nantong Industrial Arts Institute in Nantong, Jiangsu. Took advanced classes at Beijing Central Industrial Arts College.
1986 First individual exhibition, at Shanghai Art Gallery, attracted considerable media attention.
1990 Moved to Canada, where he is now working as a freelance artist.