📖 Meaning
Too numerous to be fully recounted or expressed; impossible to exhaust in telling. It describes an overwhelming abundance of people, events, or things that defy complete enumeration.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the autobiographical preface of Sima Qian's 'Records of the Grand Historian' (史记·太史公自序), written during the Western Han Dynasty. Sima Qian recounted that peoples from distant foreign lands with differing customs, passing through layers of interpreters, came to the imperial frontiers to offer tribute and request audiences with the court. Their number, he wrote, 'could not be fully recounted,' emphasizing the vast multitude of those who came to submit. The phrase later became a classical expression for anything too numerous to mention.
💡 Example Usage
历代为国捐躯的忠义之士不可胜道。
Throughout the dynasties, the loyal and righteous souls who sacrificed their lives for the nation are too numerous to count.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 不可胜道
- Pinyin: bù kě shèng dào
- Literal Translation: cannot, be able to, exhaust, speak
- Category: Variety
- Characters: 4