📖 Meaning
White teeth and red lips. It describes a beautiful, attractive facial appearance, especially used to praise someone's good looks. The phrase highlights the vivid contrast of bright teeth against rosy lips as a mark of beauty.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase traces back to the Ming dynasty play 'Qiong Ju Ji' (琼琚记) by Hu Wenhuan, specifically the scene 'Teasing the Wife Under the Mulberry Tree' (桑下戏妻). In the play, a character describes a woman's beauty by noting her red lips and white teeth, her peach-blossom face, and her green-black hair with willow-leaf eyebrows, and thus could not bear to leave her. The idiom was later popularized in classical vernacular novels such as 'Water Margin' (水浒传) by Shi Nai'an, where it was used to depict handsome young men.
💡 Example Usage
那少年生得齿白唇红，眉清目秀，端的是一表人才。
That young man had white teeth and red lips, with clear brows and bright eyes—truly a fine figure of a person.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 齿白唇红
- Pinyin: chǐ bái chún hóng
- Literal Translation: teeth white, lips red
- Category: Quality
- Characters: 4