📖 Meaning
To engrave something deeply into one's bones and inscribe it on one's heart, meaning to remember it forever. It describes a memory so profound and indelible that it becomes part of one's very being. Often used for painful or traumatic experiences that one vows never to forget.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase originates from Li Dazhao, one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party, in his 1915 essay 'National Salary and Gall' (国民之薪胆), written in response to Japan's Twenty-One Demands. Li Dazhao urged the Chinese people to forever remember three humiliating events in China's relations with Japan: the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 (甲午), the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 (甲辰), and the Twenty-One Demands crisis of 1914 (甲寅). The phrase combines '镌' (to carve or engrave) and '铭' (to inscribe) to convey a memory cut so deep into one's being that it can never be erased.
💡 Example Usage
那次惨败让他镌骨铭心，从此奋发图强。
That crushing defeat was engraved in his heart, and from then on he resolved to work tirelessly to grow stronger.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 镌骨铭心
- Pinyin: juān gǔ míng xīn
- Literal Translation: engrave, bone, inscribe, heart
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4