郢书燕说

郢書燕說
Yǐngshū Yānshuō
  1. lit. Ying writes a letter and Yan reads it
  2. fig. to misinterpret the original meaning
  3. to pile up errors
  4. refers to the letter from capital 郢 Yǐng of 楚 Chǔ in which the inadvertent words "hold up the candle" are mistaken by the minister of 燕 Yān as "promote the wise"

CEDICT

Homographs

郢书燕说 yǐngshūyānshuō

Entry Composition

1 郢 Yǐng Ying, ancient capital of Chu 楚 in Hubei, Jianling county 江陵县
2 书 shū
  1. book
  2. letter
  3. document
  4. to write

classifiers: 本, 冊, 部
3 燕 Yān
  1. Yan, a vassal state of Zhou in present-day Hebei and Liaoning
  2. north Hebei
  3. the four Yan kingdoms of the Sixteen Kingdoms, namely: Former Yan 前燕 Qián Yān (337–370), Later Yan 后燕 Hòu Yān (384–409), Southern Yan 南燕 Nán Yān (398–410), Northern Yan 北燕 Běi Yān (409–436)
  4. surname Yan
=4 说 shuō
  1. to speak; to talk; to say
  2. to explain; to comment
  3. to scold; to tell off
  4. (bound form) theory; doctrine
=4 说 shuō variant of 说 shuō