📖 Meaning
To deliberately confuse black and white, calling what is black white and vice versa. It describes the act of distorting truth and reversing right and wrong to deceive others or advance a selfish agenda. The idiom conveys willful misrepresentation of facts rather than mere misunderstanding.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom draws on the classical metaphor of black and white representing right and wrong, truth and falsehood. The character 皁 is an archaic form of 皂, meaning black or dark. The phrase echoes the broader tradition of idioms condemning those who knowingly distort reality, a theme common in Chinese philosophical and historical writings warning against sophistry and moral corruption. No single canonical source story is attached to this specific formulation.
💡 Example Usage
他为了推卸责任，竟指皁为白，把功劳全算在自己头上。
To shirk responsibility, he actually called black white and claimed all the credit for himself.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 指皁为白
- Pinyin: zhǐ zào wéi bái
- Literal Translation: point, black, as, white
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4