📖 Meaning
Refers to lovers secretly arranging a rendezvous or tryst. It evokes a scene of a clandestine moonlit meeting between a man and a woman. The phrase is commonly used to describe romantic assignations conducted in private.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from a Tang dynasty poem titled 'Bright Moon on the Fifteenth Night' (月明三五夜) by the poet Yuan Zhen. The poem's opening lines read: 'Waiting for the moon in the western chamber, the door half open to the breeze; flowers' shadows stir by the wall — is it my jade one come?' The poem describes a woman awaiting her lover on a moonlit night. This story later inspired the famous Yuan dynasty drama 'Romance of the Western Chamber' (西厢记) by Wang Shifu, cementing the phrase as a byword for secret lovers' meetings.
💡 Example Usage
他们暗中往来，颇有待月西厢之意。
They met secretly, with an air of a clandestine moonlit tryst.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 待月西厢
- Pinyin: dài yuè xī xiāng
- Literal Translation: waiting, moon, west, chamber
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4