📖 Meaning
A metaphor for wielding supreme power to overturn the established order of heaven and earth, turning a hopeless situation around completely. It describes someone of extraordinary ability who can reverse the course of events, as if rotating the sky and spinning the stars themselves.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the line '荡海吞江制中国，回天运斗应南面' in 《邺城引》(Song of Ye City), a poem by Zhang Ding of the Tang dynasty. It portrays a ruler who sweeps the seas and swallows rivers to dominate the Central Kingdom, then 'turns heaven and rotates the Big Dipper' while facing south — the traditional posture of a sovereign on the throne. The imagery of moving the celestial bodies symbolizes supreme power to command the cosmic order. Ye City, the ancient capital associated with the Wei kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period, gives the poem its grand imperial setting. The phrase later became a fixed idiom meaning to reverse a dire situation through overwhelming power.
💡 Example Usage
纵有回天运斗之力，亦难改时代潮流。
Even with the power to turn heaven and move the Dipper, one cannot change the tide of the times.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 回天运斗
- Pinyin: huí tiān yùn dǒu
- Literal Translation: turn back, heaven, rotate, Dipper
- Category: Power
- Characters: 4