坤
kūn
Pinyin
Definition
坤
-
- one of the Eight Trigrams 八卦[bā guà], symbolizing earth
- female principle
- ☷
- ancient Chinese compass point: 225° (southwest)
坤 (堃)
-
- variant of 坤[kūn]
Character Decomposition
Related Words (3)
- 1 yin and yang
- 2 heaven and earth
- 3 the universe
- 1 one of the Eight Trigrams 八卦[bā guà], symbolizing earth
- 2 female principle
- 3 ☷
- 4 ancient Chinese compass point: 225° (southwest)
- 1 Barkol Kazakh autonomous county or Barköl Qazaq aptonom nahiyisi in Kumul prefecture 哈密地區|哈密地区[Hā mì dì qū], Xinjiang
Idioms (2)
扭转乾坤
- 1 lit. to upend heaven and earth (idiom)
- 2 fig. to change the course of events
- 3 to turn things around
旋乾转坤
- 1 lit. overturning heaven and earth (idiom); earth-shattering
- 2 a radical change
Sample Sentences
是的!鼠是“鼠来宝”、牛是“扭转乾坤”、虎是“虎虎生风”、兔是“扬眉吐气”、龙是“飞龙在天“、蛇呢,又叫小龙,不妨祝人“金蛇出洞”、”绝不折本“。
Yes indeed! They say “The rat brings treasure” for the Year of the Rat; they substitute the 「扭」 in the phrase 「扭转乾坤」, meaning “to turn things around for oneself,” for its homophone 「牛」, meaning ox in the Year of the Ox; they use the phrase “formidable and majestic like a tiger” in the Year of the Tiger; they substitute the 「吐」 in the phrase 「扬眉吐气」, meaning “to breathe a sigh of relief,” for its near homophone 「兔」, meaning rabbit, in the Year of the Rabbit; they use the phrase “the flying dragon is in the sky,” as a New Year greeting in the Year of the Dragon; they often call the Year of the Snake, the Year of the Little Dragon, to allow “the golden snake to emerge from the hole,” and they substitute the 「折」 in the phrase 「絕不折本」, meaning “to make every effort not to neglect the fundamentals,” for its near homophone 「蛇」, meaning snake, in the Year of the Snake.