Our goal is to provide you with free Chinese learning tools. This series highlights idioms and proverbs, full of meaning and adaptable to many contexts. The featured idiom is 「郢書燕說」, with details below.
This feature highlights the idiom 「郢書燕說」, with its meaning and examples shown below.
Ying: the capital of Chu State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period; Shu: letter; Yan: the name of an ancient vassal state; Shuo: explanation. A metaphor for making far-fetched connections and distorting the original meaning.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
yǐng shū yàn shuō
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
ying5 syu1 yin3 syut3
There’s no shortage of Chinese idioms, each offering unique meanings and ways to use them. This guide is here to assist you as you improve your understanding of the language.
