📖 Meaning
To forge a grave mistake. It describes committing a serious and often irreversible error with lasting consequences. The metaphor draws on metalworking, where 错 (cuò) punningly means both a forged metal file and a mistake.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Zizhi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), set in the late Tang Dynasty during Emperor Zhaozong's Tianyou era (906 AD). When the powerful warlord Zhu Wen orchestrated the mass elimination of court eunuchs to consolidate control, a contemporary commentator remarked that even gathering all the iron from six prefectures and forty-three counties could not forge such a 错 (cuò). The remark was a clever pun, since 错 means both a metal file (a cast tool) and a mistake, highlighting the enormity of the political blunder.
💡 Example Usage
一时冲动，铸成大错，追悔莫及。
Acting on impulse, he made a grave mistake and regretted it too late.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 铸成大错
- Pinyin: zhù chéng dà cuò
- Literal Translation: cast, forge, great, mistake
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4