📖 Meaning
This idiom describes an environment or setting decorated so gorgeously that it seems as though brocade covers the sky and embroidery covers the ground. It is commonly used to depict lavishly adorned halls, festive scenes, or beautifully arranged surroundings.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from a poem by the Song dynasty poet Fan Chengda, titled 'Qingming Day: Trying New Fire and Hosting a Peony Gathering' (清明日试新火作牡丹会). In the poem, Fan describes a magnificent peony-viewing gathering during the Qingming Festival, where the setting was so resplendent that he wrote the line '锦天绣地春不散' — a brocade sky and embroidery ground where spring never fades. The phrase later became an established idiom for dazzlingly beautiful and richly decorated surroundings.
💡 Example Usage
元宵节的夜晚，满城花灯将街道装点得锦天绣地，美不胜收。
On the night of the Lantern Festival, lanterns all over the city decorated the streets so gorgeously that they resembled a world of brocade and embroidery, breathtakingly beautiful.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 锦天绣地
- Pinyin: jǐn tiān xiù dì
- Literal Translation: brocade, sky, embroidery, ground
- Category: Quality
- Characters: 4