罄竹難書

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Chinese

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entirely; exhausted; stern bamboo
disaster; distress; to scold
disaster; distress; to scold; difficult (to...); problem; difficulty; difficult; not good
 
book; letter
trad. (罄竹難書)
simp. (罄竹难书)
Literally: “so many that one cannot record all of them on bamboo slips even when they have been exhausted”.

Etymology

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From Lüshi Chunqiu:

不能不能 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
不能不能 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Lü Buwei, Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, 239 BCE
Cǐ jiē luàn guó zhī suǒ shēng yě, bùnéng shēng shǔ, jìn Jīng, Yuè zhī zhú, yóu bùnéng shū. [Pinyin]
These weird phenomena were due to political corruption. There were so many of them that it would not be enough to record all even if the bamboos in Jing (also known as Chu) and Yue states were used up.

Another source is from Zu Junyan's letter of declaration of war against Emperor Yang of Sui on behalf of Li Mi, which was also quoted in the Old Book of Tang:

南山無窮東海 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
南山无穷东海 [Literary Chinese, simp.]
From: The Old Book of Tang, 945 CE
Qìng Nánshān zhī zhú, shū zuì wúqióng; jué Dōnghǎi zhī bō, liú è nán jìn. [Pinyin]
Even using up the bamboos in Zhongnan Mountains would not be enough to write (Emperor Yang's) crimes; even using up the water in the East Sea would not be enough to wash away his crimes.

Pronunciation

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Idiom

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罄竹難書

  1. (of crimes) to be innumerable

Synonyms

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