📖 Meaning
This idiom refers to clandestine or illicit love affairs between men and women. It is equivalent to the related expression '逾墙钻穴' (climbing over walls and drilling holes), evoking the image of lovers secretly scaling walls to spy on or rendezvous with their beloved in defiance of social propriety.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase is a variant of the classical expression '逾墙钻穴,' imagery that appears in early Chinese literature denouncing improper conduct between the sexes. The picture it conjures—of someone stealthily climbing over a wall to peep at a lover—became a stock metaphor for romantic transgression against Confucian norms of decorum. The specific final character '蠙' (a pearl-bearing clam) in this formulation is unusual and likely reflects a particular textual tradition. No single dynasty or historical figure is definitively associated with this exact variant.
💡 Example Usage
那对男女逾墙窥蠙，终被人当场撞破。
That man and woman carried on their clandestine tryst until they were caught red-handed.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 逾墙窥蠙
- Pinyin: yú qiáng kuī pín
- Literal Translation: cross over, wall, peep, clam
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4