📖 Meaning
A metaphor for an extreme disparity in weight, value, or significance between two things. It likens one thing to a swan's down feather — weightless and trivial — and the other to Mount Tai — monumental and weighty. It is a variant of the more common idiom 鸿毛泰山.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from a poem by Guo Moruo (郭沫若), a prominent 20th-century Chinese writer and historian. In the third poem of his 'Miscellaneous Chants on Returning Home' (《归国杂吟》之三), collected in his 1937 volume 'Battle Cry Collection' (《战声集》), Guo wrote: 'For forty-six years I have been prepared to die, having long since weighed whether my death would be as light as a swan's feather or as heavy as Mount Tai.' The line echoes Sima Qian's famous reflection on the meaning of death in his 'Letter to Ren An,' where he first contrasted 鸿毛 and 泰山. Guo Moruo's variant swaps 泰山 (Mount Tai) for the synonymous 泰岱, drawing on Mount Tai's alternative name 岱宗.
💡 Example Usage
人生取舍之间，鸿毛泰岱当自分明。
When weighing life's choices, one must clearly discern what is as trivial as a feather and what is as weighty as Mount Tai.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 鸿毛泰岱
- Pinyin: hóng máo tài dài
- Literal Translation: swan feather, Mount Tai
- Category: Philosophy
- Characters: 4