Miànduì kùnjìng, tā pō yǒu wǒ zì héng dāo xiàng tiān xiào de háoqì.
Facing hardship, he carried the 'sword-across-the-sky laughter' kind of heroic bearing.
Tips
history
From Tan Sitong's (谭嗣同, late Qing, 1898) 《狱中题壁》: 望门投止思张俭，忍死须臾待杜根。我自横刀向天笑，去留肝胆两昆仑 — 'I knock at doors remembering Zhang Jian, endure death awhile as Du Gen did; I for my part hold my sword and laugh to the sky — those who go and those who stay, both are Kunlun mountains of courage.' Written on his cell wall before execution as one of the Six Gentlemen of the Hundred Days' Reform.
usage
横刀 here means to hold the blade crosswise — traditionally the pose of a condemned man accepting his sentence. The couplet (with 去留肝胆两昆仑) has become the canonical Chinese quote for defiant martyrdom and is universally taught in school.
