📖 Meaning
As far as the eye can see, with no boundary in sight. It describes a vast, expansive area such as a plain, a lake, or the sea that stretches endlessly to the horizon.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the modern Chinese novel "Mornings in Shanghai" (上海的早晨) by Zhou Erfu, written in the mid-twentieth century. In one scene set beside Poyang Lake, the narrator describes standing on a mountain at sunrise as the newly risen sun lights up the boundless expanse of the lake, making it glitter like gold. The idiom thus derives not from classical antiquity but from modern literary usage, capturing the visual experience of gazing across an unending landscape. Its vivid imagery helped it spread into common usage for describing any vast, open terrain.
💡 Example Usage
站在草原上，眼前是一望无边的绿色，让人心旷神怡。
Standing on the grassland, an endless expanse of green stretches before the eyes, lifting one's spirits.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 一望无边
- Pinyin: yī wàng wú biān
- Literal Translation: one, gaze, no, edge
- Category: Distance
- Characters: 4