p8nda
p8nda BETA
Home Dictionary Discord

龟蛇锁大江

龜蛇鎖大江
guīshésuǒdàjiāng
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 Tortoise and Snake Mountains lock the great river
  2. 2 (fig.) the two Wuhan hills standing guard over the Yangtze — a grand image of Chinese landscape
  3. 3 (lit.) tortoise — snake — lock — great — river

Examples

登上黄鹤楼，看龟蛇锁大江的壮景。
Dēng shàng Huánghè Lóu, kàn guī shé suǒ dàjiāng de zhuàng jǐng.
Climbing Yellow Crane Tower, you see the grand scene of 'Tortoise and Snake locking the great river.'
毛泽东词中写：茫茫九派流中国，沉沉一线穿南北，龟蛇锁大江。
Máo Zédōng cí zhōng xiě: mángmáng jiǔ pài liú Zhōngguó, chénchén yī xiàn chuān nán běi, guī shé suǒ dàjiāng.
In his ci Mao wrote: 'nine branches flow through China; one deep line threads north and south; Tortoise and Snake lock the great river.'

Tips

history
From 毛泽东《菩萨蛮·黄鹤楼》 (Mao Zedong, 1927, written after the failure of the Wuhan Uprising): 茫茫九派流中国，沉沉一线穿南北。烟雨莽苍苍，龟蛇锁大江 (Nine branches flow vast through China; one deep line threads north to south. Mist and rain spread hazy-blue; Tortoise and Snake lock the great river). 龟山 (Tortoise Mountain) on the Hanyang bank and 蛇山 (Snake Mountain, home of the Yellow Crane Tower) on the Wuchang bank — the two Wuhan peaks face off across the Yangtze.
usage
A specific Wuhan geographical reference, not a generic idiom. Any time 龟蛇 is paired with a river/lock verb, it's the Wuhan skyline. The image comes from Zhuge Liang-era military geography where the two mountains are described as 'locking' the Yangtze passage.

Stroke Order

龟 guī
蛇 shé
锁 suǒ
大 dà
江 jiāng