沉鱼落雁

沉魚落雁
chényúluòyàn
idiom #65,912

Meanings

  1. 1 fish sink, wild geese alight — describing breathtaking female beauty
  2. 2 beauty so great that nature itself is abashed

Examples

Tā yǒu chényúluòyàn zhī róng.
She has the beauty that makes fish sink and geese alight.
Gǔrén cháng yòng chényúluòyàn lái xíngróng měirén.
The ancients often used chenyuluoyan to describe a beauty.

Tips

history
Traces to 《庄子·》: 深入高飞 — 'Mao Qiang and Li Ji are thought beautiful by men, but fish dive deep and birds fly high when they see them' — Zhuangzi's point was the relativity of beauty, but later readers flipped it into unqualified praise.
culture
Paired with 闭月羞花 to describe the Four Great Beauties: ('sinking fish') refers to Xi Shi (西施) washing silk by the river, and ('alighting goose') to Wang Zhaojun (王昭君) playing the pipa on her journey north.

Stroke Order

chén
luò
yàn