小旻

Xiǎomín
proper noun

Meanings

  1. 1 Xiaomin, a poem in the Minor Odes of the Book of Songs

Examples

HSK 7-9
" Rúlǚ-bóbīng " zhège chéngyǔ, chūzì 《 Shījīng · Xiǎoyǎ · Xiǎomín 》.
The idiom 'as if walking on thin ice' comes from the poem Xiaomin in the Book of Songs.

Tips

history
It opens 旻天疾威,敷于下土 'harsh and terrible is high heaven, spreading over the land below', 旻 being an old word for the sky, and blames a king who rejects good counsel and follows bad plans. Its last lines picture officials living in fear: 战战兢兢,如临深渊,如履薄冰 'trembling and wary, as if at the edge of a deep pool, as if treading on thin ice'.
culture
The same poem gave 暴虎冯河 'to fight a tiger bare-handed and wade across a river', the reckless courage Confucius later said he would not take with him into battle. In it 冯 is read píng, not féng.

Stroke Order

小 xiǎo
旻 mín