We’re happy to bring you free Chinese lessons. This series dives into idioms and proverbs, meaningful and practical. Today’s phrase is 「文身斷發」, with its usage explained below.
The idiom 「文身斷發」 is the focus of our introduction today, and its explanation and application are listed below.
A custom in the ancient Jingchu and Nanyue areas. They tattooed their bodies and cut their hair short in the belief that this would protect them from harm from aquatic dragons. Later it is often used to refer to the folk customs of more backward areas.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
wén shēn duàn fā
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
man4 san1 tyun5 faat3
With so many Chinese idioms, each holding diverse meanings and uses, there is much to explore. These materials are designed to support your Chinese language studies.
