罄竹難書
Chinese
| entirely; exhausted; stern | bamboo | disaster; distress; to scold disaster; distress; to scold; difficult (to...); problem; difficulty; difficult; not good |
book; letter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| trad. (罄竹難書) | 罄 | 竹 | 難 | 書 | |
| simp. (罄竹难书) | 罄 | 竹 | 难 | 书 | |
| Literally: “so many that one cannot record all of them on bamboo slips even when they have been exhausted”. | |||||
Etymology
From Lüshi Chunqiu:
- 此皆亂國之所生也，不能勝數，盡荊、越之竹，猶不能書。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
- From: Lü Buwei, Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, 239 BCE
- Cǐ jiē luàn guó zhī suǒ shēng yě, bùnéng shēng shǔ, jìn Jīng, Yuè zhī zhú, yóu bùnéng shū. [Pinyin]
- These weird phenomena were due to political corruption. There were so many of them that it would not be enough to record all even if the bamboos in Jing (also known as Chu) and Yue states were used up.
此皆乱国之所生也，不能胜数，尽荆、越之竹，犹不能书。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
Another source is from Zu Junyan's letter of declaration of war against Emperor Yang of Sui on behalf of Li Mi, which was also quoted in the Old Book of Tang:
- 罄南山之竹，書罪無窮；決東海之波，流惡難盡。 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
- From: The Old Book of Tang, 945 CE
- Qìng Nánshān zhī zhú, shū zuì wúqióng; jué Dōnghǎi zhī bō, liú è nán jìn. [Pinyin]
- Even using up the bamboos in Zhongnan Mountains would not be enough to write (Emperor Yang's) crimes; even using up the water in the East Sea would not be enough to wash away his crimes.
罄南山之竹，书罪无穷；决东海之波，流恶难尽。 [Literary Chinese, simp.]
Pronunciation
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.