郢书燕说
Traditional: 郢書燕說Dictionary entry
lit. Ying writes a letter and Yan reads it
What does 郢书燕说 mean?
郢书燕说 (Yǐng shū Yān shuō) has the following dictionary meaning.
1lit. Ying writes a letter and Yan reads it
2fig. to misinterpret the original meaning
3to pile up errors
4refers to the letter from capital 郢[Ying3] of 楚[Chu3] in which the inadvertent words "hold up the candle" are mistaken by the minister of 燕[Yan1] as "promote the wise"
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How to pronounce 郢书燕说
郢书燕说
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Base dictionary data: CC-CEDICT · CC BY-SA 4.0.