📖 Meaning
To confuse black with white, turning right and wrong upside down. It describes a situation where truth and falsehood are deliberately or carelessly reversed, making the innocent appear guilty and wrong appear right. The idiom condemns the perversion of justice and moral order.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Biographies of Exemplary Women (列女传) compiled by Liu Xiang of the Western Han dynasty. In the chapter on Zheng Mao of Chu, the text criticizes a ruler who fails to investigate matters clearly and unjustly punishes the innocent, calling it a case where black and white are reversed and the order between high and low is thrown into confusion. The metaphor of mixing up black and white vividly denounces the distortion of truth and the subversion of justice.
💡 Example Usage
他为了个人私利，经常白黑颠倒、混淆是非。
For his own personal gain, he frequently confounds right and wrong, blurring the line between truth and falsehood.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 白黑颠倒
- Pinyin: bái hēi diān dǎo
- Literal Translation: white, black, inverted, reversed
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4