📖 Meaning
It describes extreme heat so intense that it could melt even rock and metal. The idiom is used to portray the blistering heat of midsummer or a scorching sun. The character 烁 is interchangeable with 铄, both meaning to melt or fuse.
📜 Origin Story
There is no single documented origin story for this idiom; it is a traditional compound built from the classical Chinese imagery of heat fierce enough to fuse stone and melt gold. Similar phrasing appears in ancient cosmological and mythological passages about the ten suns scorching the earth, where intense heat was said to liquefy metal and crack stone. Over time it became a set four-character expression used in poetry and prose to describe the peak of summer heat.
💡 Example Usage
盛夏的骄阳炙烤着戈壁，当真有几分烁石流金的气象。
The midsummer sun baked the desert, carrying a heat that seemed truly able to scorch stone and melt metal.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 烁石流金
- Pinyin: shuò shí liú jīn
- Literal Translation: scorch stone, melt metal
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4