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问苍茫大地

問蒼茫大地
wèncāngmángdàdì
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 I ask the vast, boundless earth
  2. 2 question the immense expanse of land
  3. 3 (lit.) ask the boundless great earth

Examples

他站在山顶，有一种问苍茫大地的豪情。
Tā zhàn zài shāndǐng, yǒu yī zhǒng wèn cāngmáng dàdì de háoqíng.
Standing on the peak, he felt that heroic impulse to question the boundless earth.
文章结尾一句"问苍茫大地"，气势磅礴。
Wénzhāng jiéwěi yī jù "wèn cāngmáng dàdì", qìshì pángbó.
The essay's closing line 'I ask the boundless earth' has a grand, sweeping force.

Tips

history
From Mao Zedong's (毛泽东) 1925 ci 《沁园春·长沙》 (Spring at Qin Garden: Changsha). The climactic line is 『问苍茫大地，谁主沉浮？』— 'I ask the boundless earth: who masters the rising and the sinking?' Written at age 32 while revisiting Changsha and looking out from Orange Isle (橘子洲头), the line is a rhetorical challenge about who will decide the fate of China.
usage
Always quoted with or implying its pair 『谁主沉浮』. 苍茫 describes the hazy, limitless quality of a vast landscape — especially at dusk or under autumn sky.

Stroke Order

问 wèn
苍 cāng
茫 máng
大 dà
地 dì