Chinese Idioms -- jìn shuǐ lóu tái

近水楼台

Waterfront pavilion --- the benefit of a favourable position

Fan Zhongyan (989 --- 1052) was a great statesman and celebrated literary man of the Song Dynasty. He was honest and frank and knew his subordinates well enough to assign them qppropriates jobs. He served as the prefect of Qiantang, present-day Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang province. All of his staff members and had an ideal assignment, except Su Lin. Su was an official, stationed in a remote area. He didn't have many chances to meet Fan, and was quite unhappy about his isolation. One day he wrote a poem and sent it to Fan Zhongyan. The poem included these lines:

A waterfront pavilion receives the moonlight first;

Sun-facing flowers find it easier to proclaim spring. Fan immediately understood Su Lin's intention and recommended him for a suitable promotion.

From Su Lin's poem people drew the idiom 近水楼台 (Jìn shuǐ lóu tái) --- sometimes, people quote the whole line of the poem --- 近水楼台先得月 (Jìn shuǐ lóu tái xiān dé yuè, a waterfront pavilion gets the moonlight first) --- and use it as an idiom to suggest that person in a favourable position wins favour first, that is, when you have close relations with someone influential, you have good opportunities. It's somewhat like the English proverb "it's easy to fetch water when a river is near".

近水楼台 jìn shuǐ lóu tái 　　

解释

靠近水边的楼台。比喻由于地处近便而获得优先的机会。

故事　　

北宋时著名的政治家和文学家范仲淹，在杭州任知州时，在他身边任职的很多官员，大多得到过他的推荐或提拔。只有一个叫苏鳞的人，因为他在杭州所属的外县做巡查，所以没被范仲淹推荐。一次，苏鳞因事到杭州见范仲淹，趁机写了一首诗，其中两句："近水楼台先得月，向阳花木易为春。"暗示范仲淹只提拔身边的人。范仲淹看了诗以后，立即写了推荐苏鳞的信，使他的愿望得以实现。这个成语出自《清夜录》，比喻由于环境或职务上的便利而获得优先的机会。