📖 Meaning
To use 'yellow' in parallel with 'white,' referring to the pursuit of neat antithetical couplets in writing. It describes a literary style focused on matching words and tones precisely rather than conveying substance.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Tang dynasty writer Liu Zongyuan's essay 'Qi Qiao Wen' (乞巧文), where he criticized the ornate and fragmented writing style of his time. He described how writers obsessed over trivial parallelism, drawing 'yellow' to match 'white' in elaborate but empty prose. The term later came to denote the overemphasis on formal rhetorical symmetry at the expense of genuine content.
💡 Example Usage
其文章笔力沉雄，直追汉魏，非抽黄对白之辈所能企及。
His writing is powerful and vigorous, directly continuing the tradition of the Han and Wei dynasties, beyond the reach of those who merely pursue ornate parallelism.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 抽黄对白
- Pinyin: chōu huáng duì bái
- Literal Translation: draw yellow, pair white
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4