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轻罗小扇扑流萤

輕羅小扇撲流螢
qīng luó xiǎo shàn pū liú yíng
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 with a light silk fan, she swats at drifting fireflies
  2. 2 (fig.) a quintessential image of idle, lonely beauty on a summer night
  3. 3 (lit.) light - silk - small - fan - swat - drifting - firefly

Examples

HSK 7-9
夏夜月下，孩子学古诗轻罗小扇扑流萤。
Xiàyè yuè xià, háizi xué gǔshī qīngluóxiǎoshànpūliúyíng.
On the summer night by moonlight, the child learned the old line 'with a light silk fan, she swats at drifting fireflies.'
HSK 7-9
她穿着汉服，轻罗小扇扑流萤，画面极美。
Tā chuānzhe hànfú, qīngluóxiǎoshànpūliúyíng, huàmiàn jí měi.
Dressed in hanfu, 'silk fan swatting fireflies', the image was exquisite.

Tips

history
From 杜牧《秋夕》 (Du Mu, Tang, 9th c.), a 28-character palace-lament quatrain: 银烛秋光冷画屏，轻罗小扇扑流萤。天阶夜色凉如水，坐看牵牛织女星 (Silver candle, autumn light, cold painted screen; a light silk fan swats at drifting fireflies. The night on the stone steps is cool as water, she sits watching the Cowherd and Weaver Girl stars). The poem's 'she' is read as a palace lady exiled to solitude, her life, like the useless summer fan in autumn, passed over and forgotten.
usage
罗 here = 'fine silk gauze' (the fabric), not 'net.' 扑 = to swat at (fireflies). 流萤 = drifting fireflies, a classical reduplication-equivalent binomial. Sometimes mis-quoted with 捕 (catch); the canonical character is 扑.

Stroke Order

轻 qīng
罗 luó
小 xiǎo
扇 shàn
扑 pū
流 liú
萤 yíng