📖 Meaning
Red and green here refer to flowers and leaves; the idiom depicts withered flowers and fallen leaves damaged by wind and rain. It is often used to express a desolate, melancholy feeling about one's own miserable circumstances, evoking the passing of youth and the harshness of fate.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from Song Dynasty ci poetry. The earliest source is Liu Yong's ci poem 定风波 (Ding Feng Bo): '自春来，惨绿愁红，芳心是事可可' (Since spring came, the green is bleak and the red is sorrowful; the heart is listless about everything). It also appears in Xin Qiji's ci poem 鹧鸪天·赋牡丹 (Partridge in the Sky: On Peonies): '愁红惨绿今宵看，恰似吴宫教阵图' (This night we view the sorrowful red and bleak green, just like the drill formation diagram in the Wu palace). Later writers such as the Yuan dynasty playwright Lan Chufang also used the phrase, cementing it as a set expression for blighted, sorrowful flowers.
💡 Example Usage
秋风起处，满园愁红惨绿，令人黯然神伤。
Wherever the autumn wind blows, the whole garden is full of sorrowful red and bleak green, leaving one deeply dejected.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 愁红惨绿
- Pinyin: chóu hóng cǎn lü
- Literal Translation: sorrowful red, bleak green
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4