风月

風月
fēngyuè
noun #31,183

Meanings

  1. 1 beautiful scenery (literally 'wind and moon')
  2. 2 romance; love affairs
  3. 3 (euphemism) flirtation, the world of pleasure quarters

Examples

Húguāng shānsè, fēngyuè wúbiān.
The lake and mountains, the wind and moon — beauty without limit.
Tā niánqīng shí fēngyuè chǎng shàng méi shǎo hùn.
When he was young he spent plenty of time in the pleasure quarters.

Tips

culture
Two coexisting senses: classical 风月 = 'wind and moon' = pure natural beauty (think 风花雪月 fēng huā xuě yuè 'wind, flower, snow, moon' — the four classical poetic motifs). But 风月 fēngyuèchǎng and 风月 fēngyuèpiàn refer to brothels and softcore films respectively. Same word, opposite registers — context tells you which.
register
风月 in modern usage usually leans euphemistic (love affairs, the demimonde). For pure scenery, 风景 fēngjǐng is safer.

Stroke Order

fēng
yuè