occupies the leading position in Chinese traditional religions. People believe there is a “Buddha” who can dominate the world and decide everyone?s destine. Many Chinese idioms come form Buddhism, such as “佛口蛇心”、“佛头着粪”、“借花献佛”、“五体投地”、“一尘不染”、“现身说法”、“回头是岸”、“在劫难逃”、“大慈大悲”etc. There are also proverbs coming from Buddhism. For example,“不看僧面看佛面”、 “闲时不烧香，临时抱佛脚”、“跑得了和尚跑不了庙”、“泥菩萨过河，自身难保”、“放下屠刀，立地成佛”、“一个和尚挑水吃，两个和尚抬水吃，三个和尚没水吃”. [9:9] Most Chinese believe Buddhism, they are deeply influenced by Buddhism, we usually use this idiom “放下屠刀，立地成佛”,it is translated into “to drop one?s cleaver and become a Buddha-achieve salvation as soon as one gives up evil”. However, most English people believe Christianity, they uphold Christian culture. Different beliefs in Chinese and English reflect the two different languages. Therefore, we should take it seriously in cross-cultural communication. Otherwise, it is confused. Such as “谋事在人，成事在天”is “Man proposes, God disposes”, the translation seems to be the best way, however, the two background of beliefs and cultures are different, if it is translated into “Man proposes, God disposes”, Chinese become believing Christianity not Buddhism. Thus, we should take “Heaven” instead of “God”.
IV . Different aesthetic customs
4.1
Conceptions on animals
As different ethnic has different national personality, they all have their own aesthetic habit and aesthetic emotion. English and Chinese belong to two different language families. Chinese belongs to the Han-Tibetan language family. Being limited to the living conditions, climate and so on, several animals find the same environment on which they rely for existence as the human being. These animals and the human beings are interdependent. While the man are the most emotional animals that give the animals different affection, as a result, the symbolic meaning of the animals vary greatly.
The cattle had once done great contributions to Chinese agriculture in history, so
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there emerged idioms concerning this animal, such as “力大如牛”，“倔犟如牛”，“鞭打快牛”.For the English, horse is used as an important tool whose merits and contributions are outstanding. Consequently, there are equivalent idioms having the same meaning as Chinese idioms in English, such as “as strong as a horse”, “as stubborn as a mule” and “The horse that draws best is most whipped.” Besides, the British advocate horsemanship. They like raising horses and holding horse-races. Thus there are a great number of idioms concerning horse, such as: “dark horse”, “eat like a horse”, “bet on the wrong horse”, “change horse in mid-stream”, “hold one?s horse”.
In western culture, the cunning fox specially likes eating the goose surreptitiously. If leaving the fox to look after the geese alone, wouldn?t it mean looking for trouble? We have no such knowledge in Chinese. Thereby, the English idiom “set a fox to keep one?s geese”（让狐狸看鹅）would be quite baffling to the Chinese. But there is an identical idiom in Chinese ——“引狼入室”which means the same thing as “set a fox to keep one?s geese”.[13：7] Both of the two idioms are translated correspondingly and vividly.
It is worth mentioning that, in Chinese?s eyes, tiger is the king of wild animals. It has rich cultural symbolized meaning, including the commendatory connotation, such as valor, grandeur and might, as well as the derogatory connotation of cruelty, savageness and ferociousness. While in English culture, lion is the king of all animals, consequently, there are obviously much more English idioms concerning lion than the Chinese idioms concerning tiger, so that “we often translate lion into ?虎? in English translation, such as ?a lion in the way?(拦路虎), ?place oneself in the lion?s mouth?(深入虎穴)”.
4.2 Conceptions on colors
There are three kinds of basic colors: red, yellow and blue. Colors are cognized mainly through the seven kinds of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple in the spectrum. Due to the different countries? historical backgrounds, geographical locations, customs and traditions, people have diverse cognitions of
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colors, so the idioms rising under the conditions reflect such regional differences. Taking “red” and “white” for example, in western countries, red is regarded as brutality and unluckiness. Red means bleeding. So there appears some having derogatory and taboo color words, such as “red skin（对印第安人的鄙夷称呼），red tape（繁文缛节，官僚习气）,in the red（亏损）,out of red（扭亏为盈）, red alert（空袭、紧急警报）, red cock（纵火引起的火灾）, red cent（毫无价值的事物）”. While in China, red means luck and joy. There are many Chinese idioms obviously having complimentary sense, such as开门红 (get off to have a good start), 红颜薄命 (a beautiful girl has an unfortunate life), 红运当头(have a good luck), 红光满面 (in the pink), 红男绿女(gaily dressed young men and women), 红得发紫(extremely popular), 红极一时（enjoy popularity for a time）, 红装素裹（clad in white, adorned in red）.
People in western countries look upon white as the symbol of purity, as well as some implications of racial discrimination. The westerners are white people who entrust extremely noble symbol to white. In English there are：white hat（好人），white lies （善意的谎言）， white--headed boy（宠儿），the white hope（带来荣誉的人），white slavery（逼良为娼——西方人认为白种人不能做奴隶），etc. However it is different in China. In Chinese?s eyes, white stands for funeral and revolt, which has derogatory color? For example, there are白日做梦(indulge in wishful thinking), 白费口舌(waste one?s breath),一穷二白(poor and blank),白忙乎(in vain) ,白字连篇(reams of wrong characters), 白云苍狗(white clouds change into grey dogs-the changes in human affairs often take freakish forms)[8:13].
Although yellow and blue are different, the symbols are same in the two different national cultures. The two stand for diadem and dignity. Many examples illustrate such English idioms.
A blue-blooded family 表示具有王室血统的家庭 Blue Book 蓝皮书
The boys in blue 专指皇家警察和水兵 Blue ribbon committee 一流的委员会
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And such Chinese idioms are familiar to us, for example, “黄袍加身”，it is same to English “raise sub to the purple”,“黄屋”and so on.
4.3 Conceptions on age
At the age issue, westerns? attitude is quite different from that of Chinese. In western country, age has become one of the most representative privacy. “You can?t teach an old dog new trick(年逾花甲不堪教)” a saying that means old people can learn nothing new. It has sad color on the olds. “Old as the hill” means really old. And “over the hills” also means old. “No spring chicken” means no young anymore. On Chinese tradition, the orderly often link to the old veteran experience, so we usually call others “老王” “老李” and so on. Thus, the orderly in china is not a matter for regret. Since ancient time, The Chinese nation has a fine tradition of respecting elderly people. In Chinese idioms, we say “莫道桑榆晚，微霞尚满天”，“老骥伏枥，志在千里”. The different aesthetic customs also reflect in vehicle on both Chinese and English. For example, “all is fish that comes to the net (抓到篮子便是菜)”, “to cry up wine and sell vinegar (挂羊头，卖狗肉)”, “love me love my dog (爱屋及乌)”, “better be the bead of a dog than the tall of a lion (宁为鸡口，不为牛后)”.
V. Different history and tradition
5.1Stories from history
There are lots of idioms coming from historical allusions, myths and legends. The structure of these idioms is very simple but they have profound meaning, so we can not translate and understand these idioms from the literal meaning. It?s necessary for us to learn and understand the English allusion and myths as well as the Chinese allusions and myths. It?s useful to learn about the origin and development of English and Chinese language and culture. For example“东施效颦”it is from《庄子·天运》and now it means imitating somebody stupidly. “名落孙山”it refers to a person who fail in the exam and is not enrolled.“叶公好龙”means a person who professed love of what one really fears. Other allegorical stories like“守株待兔”、“愚公移山”、“黔驴
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技穷”、“刻舟求剑”are often quoted and widely loved by Chinese people. The ancient myths and legends also produce lots of idioms. In Chinese, such set phrases as“嫦娥奔月”、“夸父追月”、“画龙点睛”“精卫填海”、“女祸补天”are all pieces of beautiful and touching myths. The proverbs “天冷不冻织女手，饥荒不饿苦耕人”and“雷公先唱歌，有雨也不多”contain the legendary characters.
While English traditional culture is deeply associated with the Greek Roman Myth. For instance, the Trojan Horse（特洛伊木马）, “Pandora?s Box”（潘多拉之盒，指灾难，麻烦，祸害的根源）”, Achilles? heel”（阿基里斯的脚后跟，指唯一致命弱点）, “meet one?s waterloo”（一败涂地）, Penelope?s web（铂涅罗铂的织物，指永远完不成的工作）， “crocodile?s tears” （鳄鱼的眼泪）, it is just like the Chinese idiom “猫哭老鼠假慈悲”[11:45].
There are also many set phrases based on the Greek Roman legends. For example: I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts(Greek gifts: 危险的礼物；糖衣炮弹) . When Greek meets Greek, and then comes the tug of war. Homer sometimes nods.
5.2Different cultural traditions
Both English and Chinese idioms have a close relationship with their cultures. So it is necessary to know the cultural traditions.
Due to the two different cultures and backgrounds, and different understanding of the source language, these idioms may be translated in the light of each cultures and backgrounds. Origin of idioms is closely related to their backgrounds, different idioms have serious national cultures. Chinese take farming as the dominant factor since ancient times, farmer plays large part in China; people accumulate rich experience in agriculture, which give rise to lots of idioms in terms of agriculture. The following Chinese idioms belong to this type.
瓜田李下 in a melon patch or under a plum tree 地老天荒 till the end of the world 五谷丰登 a bumper grain harvest
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