问苍茫大地

問蒼茫大地

wèn cāngmáng dàdì

quotation

Meanings

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

Characters

deep blue-green / vast

boundless / hazy

Examples

HSK 7-9

他站在山顶，有一种问苍茫大地的豪情。

Tā zhàn zài shāndǐng, yǒu yī zhǒng wèncāngmángdàdì de háoqíng.

Standing on the peak, he felt that heroic impulse to question the boundless earth.

HSK 7-9

文章结尾一句"问苍茫大地"，气势磅礴。

Wénzhāng jiéwěi yī jù " wèncāngmángdàdì ", qìshìpángbó.

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