呉牛月に喘ぐ

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Japanese

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Kanji in this term

Grade: S
ぎゅう
Grade: 2
つき
Grade: 1
あえ
Hyōgai
kan'on kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
吳牛月に喘ぐ (kyūjitai)

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Calque of Literary Chinese 吳牛喘月 (Wú niú chuǎnyuè). Literally "water buffalo from Wu (East China) pants at the moon", as if the moon were a hot sun.

From 世說新語·言語世说新语·言语:

[Classical Chinese, trad.]
[Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Liu Yiqing (editor), A New Account of the Tales of the World, 5th century CE
Chén yóu Wú niú, jiàn yuè ér chuǎn. [Pinyin]
The minister is a like a water buffalo from Wu seeing the moon and breathing heavily.

Also, this idiom is believed to be taken from a lost volume of a much earlier work 風俗通義风俗通义 (cited by 太平御覽):

使苦於 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
使苦于 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
Wú niú wàng yuèchuǎn; shǐ zhī kǔyú rì, jiàn yuè bù, chuǎn yǐ! [Pinyin]
A buffalo from Wu pants at the moon. It has been worked harshly under the sun, and it becomes frightened when seeing the moon, thereby pants.

Proverb

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()(ぎゅう)(つき)(あえ) (gogyū tsuki ni aegu

  1. excessive fear