鏡花水月

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See also: 镜花水月

Chinese

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mirror; lens
flower; blossom; to spend
flower; blossom; to spend; fancy pattern
 
water; river moon; month
trad. (鏡花水月)
simp. (镜花水月)
Literally: “flower in the mirror, moon on the water”.

Etymology

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From metaphors common in Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially in the Prajñāpāramitā literature: Sanskrit प्रतिबिम्ब (pratibimba, reflected image) and दकचन्द्र (dakacandra, literally water-moon).[1] Early attestations in Chinese include the translation of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitāsūtra by the Khotanese monk Mokṣala (無羅叉) [291]. The following attestations are from the works of Kumārajīva:[2]

非色非色 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
非色非色 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Late 4th century–early 5th century, Hui Yuan (慧遠) and Kumārajīva (鳩摩羅什 (Jiūmóluóshí)), The Correspondences of Hui Yuan and Kumārajīva (《鳩摩羅什法師大義》), T1856
Ruò fēisè zhī wù, zé yì jīn shì. Rú jìng zhōng xiàng, shuǐ zhōng yuè, jiàn rú yǒu sè, ér wú chù děng, zé fēisè yě. [Pinyin]
If it is a formless object, then it is different from the matters of today. It is like an image in the mirror or the moon in the water, which appear to have a form but cannot be touched and such; these are formless.
解了虛空揵闥婆 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
解了虚空揵闼婆 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: c. 404, Kumārajīva (鳩摩羅什 (Jiūmóluóshí)), trans. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra (《摩訶般若波羅蜜經》), T0223
Jiěliǎo zhū fǎ, rú huàn, rú yàn, rú shuǐ zhōng yuè, rú xūkōng, rú xiǎng, rú qiántàpó chéng, rú mèng, rú yǐng, rú jìng zhōng xiàng, rú huà. [Pinyin]
Understanding all the dharmas is like fantasy, like a flame, like the moon in the water, like vanity, like an echo, like the (illusive) city of the gandharvas, like a dream, like a shadow, like an image in the mirror, like change.

(xiàng, “image”) in the original literature has been modified to (huā, “flower”), mostly for poetic purposes.

Pronunciation

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Idiom

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鏡花水月

  1. (literal) flowers reflected on a mirror and the moon reflected in the water
  2. (figurative) fantasy, illusion, mere shadow, phantom, vision, something that is visible but having no substance
  3. (figurative) the subtle and profound beauty of poems that should not be comprehended by words literally

Synonyms

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References

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  1. ^ Orsborn, Matthew (2018) “Something for Nothing: Cognitive Metaphors for Emptiness in the *Upadeśa (Dàzhìdù lùn)”, in Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies[1], volume 31, pages 171–222
  2. ^ 鏡花水月 [jìnghuāshuǐyuè]”, in 《成語典》, 2020

Japanese

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Kanji in this term
きょう
Grade: 4

Grade: 1
すい
Grade: 1
げつ
Grade: 1
on'yomi

Etymology

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Borrowed from Chinese 鏡花水月镜花水月 (jìnghuāshuǐyuè) above. See Etymology in Chinese section.

Pronunciation

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  • (Tokyo) きょーかすいげつ [kyóꜜòkà sùìgètsù] (Atamadaka – [1])[1]
  • IPA(key): [kʲo̞ːka̠ sɨiɡe̞t͡sɨ]

Noun

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(きょう)()(すい)(げつ) (kyōka suigetsuきやうくわすいげつ (kyaukwasuigetu)?

  1. flowers reflected on a mirror and the moon reflected on the water's surface
  2. (by extension, idiomatic) something that is visible but having no substance; illusion, mere shadow, phantom, vision
  3. the subtle and profound beauty of poems that cannot be described in words

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

Anagrams

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