郢書燕說

郢书燕说
yǐngshūyānshuō

to misinterpret the original meaning; to distort the meaning in order to fit one's ideas; to pile up errors

Wiktionary

Homographs

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"

Entry Composition

1 郢 Yǐng Ying, ancient capital of Chu 楚 in Hubei, Jianling county 江陵縣
=2 書 Shū abbr. for 書經 Shūjīng
=2 書 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 後燕 Hòu Yān (384–409), Southern Yan 南燕 Nán Yān (398–410), Northern Yan 北燕 Běi Yān (409–436)
  4. surname Yan
=3 燕 yàn
  1. swallow (family Hirundinidae)
  2. old variant of 宴 yàn
=3 燕 yàn variant of 燕 yàn
=4 說 shuì to persuade
=4 說 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 說 yuè
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of 悅 /悦 (yuè, “happy; delighted”)
  2. alternative form of 悅 /悦 (yuè, “happy; delighted”)
=4 說 tuō
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of 脫 /脱 (“to free; to relieve”)
  2. alternative form of 脫 /脱 (“to free; to relieve”)