📖 Meaning
To wipe out a debt or account with a single stroke of the brush. It is a metaphor for completely canceling, forgiving, or annulling all debts, grievances, or past matters at once.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Song Dynasty work 'Wuchao Mingchen Yanxing Lu' (Records of Words and Deeds of Famous Ministers of Five Dynasties) compiled by Zhu Xi. It records that the statesman Fan Zhongyan, when reviewing official registers, would upon seeing the name of an incompetent supervisor cross it out with a single stroke of his brush. The phrase later broadened to mean wiping out debts or canceling everything in one action.
💡 Example Usage
他们之间的所有债务一笔勾销，从此互不相欠。
All debts between them were written off in one stroke, and from then on neither owed the other anything.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 一笔勾销
- Pinyin: yī bǐ gōu xiāo
- Literal Translation: one, stroke, cross out, cancel
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4