虎踞龙盘今胜昔

虎踞龍盤今勝昔
hǔjùlóngpánjīnshèngxī
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 crouching tiger, coiling dragon — today surpasses yesterday
  2. 2 (fig.) (of Nanjing / a strategic city) now more formidable than ever
  3. 3 (lit.) tiger-crouch dragon-coil, today surpass yesterday

Examples

Máo Zédōng xiě hǔ jù lóng pán jīn shèng xī, qìshì pángbó.
Mao Zedong's line 'crouching tiger, coiling dragon — today surpasses yesterday' is grand in momentum.
Nánjīng zhè zuò gǔ chéng, zhèng rú shī zhōng hǔ jù lóng pán jīn shèng xī.
The ancient city of Nanjing is exactly as the poem says: 'crouching tiger, coiling dragon — now greater than ever.'

Tips

history
From 毛泽东·人民解放军占领南京》(Mao Zedong, The PLA Captures Nanjing, April 1949), written the day after PLA troops crossed the Yangtze and took the city: 风雨百万大江天翻地覆 (Storm and rain rise yellow-grey over Zhong Mountain; a million heroic troops cross the great river. Crouching tiger, coiling dragon — today surpasses yesterday; heaven overturned, earth flipped, I sing with passion). is the ancient epithet for Nanjing's terrain, attributed originally to 诸葛亮 (Zhuge Liang, 3rd c.): (Zhongshan is a coiling dragon; Stone City is a crouching tiger).
usage
The four-character is a long-standing set phrase for Nanjing's strategic geography — Mao added ('today surpasses yesterday') to turn the line into a victory boast. Always cited with 天翻地覆 as its couplet partner.

Stroke Order

lóng
pán
jīn
shèng