📖 Meaning
A metaphor for a married couple who were separated or divorced reuniting and restoring their relationship. It conveys the idea that a broken bond can be mended and made whole again, just as a shattered mirror can be pieced back together.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from a story recorded in Wei Shu's 'Liang Jing Xin Ji' (《两京新记》) during the Tang Dynasty. It tells of Princess Lechang of the Chen Dynasty and her husband Xu Deyan, who broke a bronze mirror into two halves before being separated by war. Each kept one half as a token of reunion. Years later, during the Sui Dynasty, the princess sold her half of the mirror in a market, and through this broken mirror, the couple miraculously found each other and were reunited.
💡 Example Usage
经历十年分离，这对夫妻终于破镜重圆了。
After ten years of separation, this couple finally reunited and mended their marriage.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 破镜重圆
- Pinyin: pò jìng chóng yuán
- Literal Translation: broken, mirror, again, round
- Category: Recovery
- Characters: 4