步履蹒跚 — “To walk haltingly”

Lord Pingyuan had a tall building overlooking the neighborhood, where his concubines resided. One day, while looking out, the concubines saw a lame man drawing water from a well. Amused by his slow, stumbling walk, they burst into laughter, some even imitating his gait for entertainment.

The lame man was deeply offended by this mockery. The next morning, he visited Lord Pingyuan and stated, 'I have heard that you welcome virtuous scholars, and they travel great distances to join you because you value them and disdain beautiful women. Unfortunately, I suffer from a curved back and a hunched posture. Your household members saw me from above and ridiculed me, which is improper. I demand the head of the person who laughed at me!'

Lord Pingyuan feigned a smile and agreed. After the man left, Pingyuan scoffed to his attendants, 'That fellow wants me to kill a beautiful woman just for a laugh? Isn't that too extreme!' He did not carry out the killing.

Over a year later, more than half of Lord Pingyuan's guests had left. Perplexed, he asked the remaining guests, 'I have always treated you with sincerity and never shown disrespect, so why have so many departed?'

One guest stepped forward and candidly explained, 'It is because you did not kill the woman who mocked the lame man. This shows you favor women over scholars, which caused the guests to leave.'

Lord Pingyuan was filled with remorse. He immediately ordered the execution of the concubines who had ridiculed the lame scholar. He personally took their heads to the lame man's home to apologize. Soon after, the guests who had left began to return to his household.

The phrase '步履蹒跚' (bù lǚ pán shān) is derived from this story. According to the Song Dynasty's *Shishi Changtan*, it evolved from '磐散行汲' (pán sàn xíng jí) found in the *Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji)*, meaning 'stumbling while drawing water.' This shows that the idiom's origin dates back over two thousand years.