To master Chinese, begin with characters, move to words, and then idioms. Here’s the idiom 「斯文掃地」 explained, free of charge.
Our focus this time is on the idiom 「斯文掃地」. You’ll find its definition and examples below.
Sven: refers to culture or literati; sweep the floor: a metaphor for the complete loss of reputation, credit, status, etc. It means that culture or literati are not respected or that literati have fallen into depravity.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
sī wén sǎo dì
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
si1 man4 sou3 dei6
Chinese idioms, with their vast variety, hold different meanings and uses. Their abundance makes studying them rewarding, and these materials are here to help you along the way.
