Stopping people’s mouths

Danwei’s sister website, One a day dot org publishes a Chinese idiom with English translation and pinyin every week day. Here’s a sample:

防民之口甚于防川
fang2 min2 zhi1 kou3 shen4 yu2 fang2 chuan1

Stopping people’s mouths is more difficult than damming rivers

You can see the entire archive of One A Day’s idioms by clicking through these these links:

– One A Day simplified character archives

– One A Day traditional character archives

UPDATE: From the Flyisland in the comments: This idiom is perhaps better translated as: “Stopping people’s mouths is more more dangerous than damming rivers”.