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樯橹灰飞烟灭

檣櫓灰飛煙滅
qiánglǔ huī fēi yān miè
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 masts and oars — ash scatters, smoke vanishes
  2. 2 (of a fleet) utterly destroyed, reduced to ash and smoke
  3. 3 (lit.) masts and oars fly as ash and dissolve as smoke

Examples

赤壁之战，曹军战船樯橹灰飞烟灭。
Chìbìzhīzhàn, Cáo jūn zhàn chuán qiánglǔhuīfēiyānmiè.
At the Battle of Red Cliff, Cao's warships — 'masts and oars' — vanished as ash and smoke.
一场大火，百年产业樯橹灰飞烟灭。
Yī chǎng dàhuǒ, bǎinián chǎnyè qiánglǔhuīfēiyānmiè.
One blaze, and the hundred-year business 'went up in ash and smoke.'

Tips

history
From 苏轼《念奴娇·赤壁怀古》(Su Shi, Northern Song, 1082): 遥想公瑾当年，小乔初嫁了，雄姿英发。羽扇纶巾，谈笑间，樯橹灰飞烟灭 (Recalling Zhou Yu in his prime, newly wed to Little Qiao, handsome and dashing. Feather fan, silk cap — amid talk and laughter, masts and oars turned to ash and smoke). The climactic image of Zhou Yu burning Cao Cao's fleet at Red Cliff (208 CE). 《念奴娇·赤壁怀古》 is one of the greatest ci poems in Chinese literature.
usage
樯 = mast, 橹 = oar; together 樯橹 = ships (metonymy for a fleet). Some editions read 强虏 ('the powerful invader') instead of 樯橹 — a textual variant. 灰飞烟灭 has become a detachable idiom meaning 'utterly destroyed, vanished without trace.'

Stroke Order

樯 qiáng
橹 lǔ
灰 huī
飞 fēi
烟 yān
灭 miè