腐草为萤

腐草為螢

fǔcǎowéiyíng

idiom

Meanings

1 rotting grass turns into fireflies
2 a classical phenological saying for late summer

Characters

Examples

古人相信腐草为萤，其实萤火虫是在草丛中孵化的。

Gǔrén xiāngxìn fǔcǎo wéi yíng, qíshí yínghuǒchóng shì zài cǎocóng zhōng fūhuà de.

The ancients believed rotting grass became fireflies, but in fact fireflies hatch from eggs laid in grass.

大暑三候之一便是腐草为萤。

Dàshǔ sān hòu zhī yī biàn shì fǔcǎo wéi yíng.

One of the three pentads of the Dashu solar term is 'rotting grass becomes fireflies.'

Tips

history

From 《礼记·月令》, which pairs the phrase with the third month of summer. The belief that fireflies spontaneously generated from decaying grass was held worldwide — Aristotle endorsed the same idea — and persisted until modern entomology traced larvae to eggs in damp leaf litter.

Stroke Order

腐 fǔ

草 cǎo

为 wèi

萤 yíng