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龟蛇锁大江

龜蛇鎖大江
guī shé suǒ dàjiāng
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 Tortoise and Snake Mountains lock the great river
  2. 2 the two Wuhan hills standing guard over the Yangtze; a grand image of Chinese landscape
  3. 3 tortoise, snake, lock, great, river

Examples

HSK 7-9
登上黄鹤楼，看龟蛇锁大江的壮景。
Dēngshàng Huáng hè Lóu, kàn guīshésuǒdàjiāng de zhuàng jǐng.
Climbing Yellow Crane Tower, you see the grand scene of 'Tortoise and Snake locking the great river.'
HSK 7-9
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。
Máozédōng cí zhōng xiě: mángmáng jiǔ pài liú Zhōngguó, chénchén yīxiàn chuān nánběi, guīshésuǒdàjiāng.
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