📖 Meaning
A lie so enormous it seems to fill the whole sky — a boundless, outrageous falsehood with no limit or measure. It describes a fabrication so exaggerated and shameless that it defies any belief.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom appears in Lu Xun's essay '谚语' (Proverbs), collected in his 1930s work 《南腔北调集》 (Nán Qiāng Běi Diào Jí). Lu Xun criticizes the self-conceited scholars (秀才) of old China, who boasted that 'the scholar who never leaves his gate still knows all that happens under heaven.' He called this arrogant claim a boundless, sky-covering lie (漫天大谎), yet the common people believed it readily, and so it gradually spread as an accepted proverb. Through this example, Lu Xun mocked pretentious, baseless assertions that are nonetheless taken as wisdom.
💡 Example Usage
他为了逃避责罚，竟然编造漫天大谎欺骗上司。
In order to escape punishment, he actually fabricated a monstrous lie to deceive his superior.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 漫天大谎
- Pinyin: màn tiān dà huǎng
- Literal Translation: boundless, sky, great, lie
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4