昏天黑地

Chinese

		muddle-headed; twilight; to faint muddle-headed; twilight; to faint; to lose consciousness	day; sky; heaven	black; dark; Heilongjiang Province (abbrev.)	earth; ground; field earth; ground; field; place; land; (subor. part. adverbial); ‑ly
trad. (昏天黑地)		昏	天	黑	地
simp. #(昏天黑地)		昏	天	黑	地

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): hūntiānhēidì

  (Zhuyin): ㄏㄨㄣ ㄊㄧㄢ ㄏㄟ ㄉㄧˋ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: hūntiānhēidì
    • Zhuyin: ㄏㄨㄣ ㄊㄧㄢ ㄏㄟ ㄉㄧˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: huntianheidì
    • Wade–Giles: hun¹-tʻien¹-hei¹-ti⁴
    • Yale: hwūn-tyān-hēi-dì
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: huentianheidih
    • Palladius: хуньтяньхэйди (xunʹtjanʹxɛjdi)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /xu̯ən⁵⁵ tʰi̯ɛn⁵⁵ xeɪ̯⁵⁵ ti⁵¹/

Idiom

昏天黑地

1. (literally) in pitch darkness; pitch-dark
2. (figurative) dazed; groggy
3. (figurative) to suffer from social chaos or deep-rooted injustice
   • “做百姓认可的好官”, in 人民网‎^[1] (overall work in Chinese), 2017 March 24, archived from the original on 2024-11-23

     官一到任时，金天银地；官在内署时，花天酒地；坐堂听断时，昏天黑地；百姓含冤时，恨天怨地；如今交卸时，谢天谢地！ [MSC, simp.]
     官一到任時，金天銀地；官在內署時，花天酒地；坐堂聽斷時，昏天黑地；百姓含冤時，恨天怨地；如今交卸時，謝天謝地！ [MSC, trad.]

     Guān yī dàorèn shí, jīntiānyíndì; guān zài nèishǔ shí, huātiānjiǔdì; zuòtáng tīngduàn shí, hūntiānhēidì; bǎixìng hányuān shí, hèntiānyuàndì; rújīn jiāoxiè shí, xiètiānxièdì! [Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. (figurative) to muddle along; to be semi-conscious

   • 轉得大了，都昏天黑地的在社會上轉，同他們的父親一樣，或者還不如。 [MSC, trad.]
     转得大了，都昏天黑地的在社会上转，同他们的父亲一样，或者还不如。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 1918, September 15, Lu Xun (魯迅，署名唐俟), Random Thoughts [25]（隨感錄二十五）, translated in English by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang

     Zhuǎn de dà le, dōu hūntiānhēidì de zài shèhuìshang zhuǎn, tóng tāmen de fùqin yīyàng, huòzhě hái bùrú. [Pinyin]

     And, grown up, they all drift aimlessly through life, just like their fathers before them, if not worse.

5. (figurative) (followed by 得) as if there's no tomorrow (used to emphasize the fierceness of fighting or quarrelling)

Synonyms

• (suffering from lack of justice): 暗無天日／暗无天日 (ànwútiānrì)
• (like there were no tomorrow): 不可開交／不可开交 (bùkěkāijiāo)
• (both above): 天昏地暗 (tiānhūndì'àn); 天昏地黑 (tiānhūndìhēi)
• (muddling along): 渾渾噩噩／浑浑噩噩 (húnhún'è'è); 得過且過／得过且过 (déguòqiěguò)