Free Chinese learning, tailored for you! This series highlights idioms and proverbs, useful in many contexts. Let’s explain 「天涯咫尺」 and how it’s used.
We’re presenting the idiom 「天涯咫尺」 this time—its explanation and use are detailed below.
稚細: an ancient unit of length, eight inches in the Zhou Dynasty system, equivalent to six inches, two points and two centimeters in today’s city feet; 稚尺: a metaphor for a very close distance. It is a metaphor that although the distance is close, it is difficult to meet each other, as if they are far away in the horizon.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
tiān yá zhǐ chǐ
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
tin1 ngaai4 ji2 chek3
The treasure trove of Chinese idioms is extensive, with different expressions suited for various situations. We hope these free resources will aid you in your journey to mastering Chinese.
