📖 Meaning
The idiom depicts mountains stripped of all vegetation and stones decaying into dust. It serves as a metaphor for phenomena that are impossible or can never happen in the natural world.
📜 Origin Story
No specific classical source is recorded for this idiom. It likely emerged from folk wisdom based on the observation that mountains are perennially covered with grass and trees, while stones endure without decay. By invoking two scenarios that defy the natural order, the phrase became a rhetorical device to emphasize the absolute impossibility of an event occurring.
💡 Example Usage
就算等到山童石烂，我也不会放弃我的信念。
Even if I waited until the mountains go bare and the stones rot away, I would never abandon my convictions.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 山童石烂
- Pinyin: shān tóng shí làn
- Literal Translation: mountain, bare, stone, rotten
- Category: Logic
- Characters: 4