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可下五洋捉鳖

可下五洋捉鼈
kěxiàwǔyángzhuōbiē
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 able to descend the five seas to catch the giant turtle
  2. 2 no depth is too forbidding
  3. 3 capable of the seemingly impossible

Examples

深海探测的成功，真正实现了可下五洋捉鳖。
Shēnhǎi tàncè de chénggōng, zhēnzhèng shíxiàn le kě xià wǔ yáng zhuō biē.
The success of deep-sea exploration truly realized 'descending the five seas to catch the giant turtle.'
可上九天揽月，可下五洋捉鳖，是对这代科学家的真实写照。
Kě shàng jiǔ tiān lǎn yuè, kě xià wǔ yáng zhuō biē, shì duì zhè dài kēxuéjiā de zhēnshí xiězhào.
'Climb the ninth heaven to pluck the moon, dive the five seas to catch the turtle' truly describes this generation of scientists.

Tips

history
Paired half of a famous line from Mao Zedong's 1965 poem 《水调歌头·重上井冈山》: 可上九天揽月，可下五洋捉鳖，谈笑凯歌还 — 'We may climb the ninth heaven to pluck the moon, or descend the five seas to catch the giant turtle; laughing and singing, we return in triumph.' Now standard rhetoric for China's deep-sea exploration program.
usage
鳖 (biē) is the soft-shelled turtle — a symbol of the deep water. Always cited with its twin 可上九天揽月 ('climb the ninth heaven to pluck the moon'). The pair frames any bold ambition that reaches both up and down.

Stroke Order

可 kě
下 xià
五 wǔ
洋 yáng
捉 zhuō
鳖 biē