此地無銀三百兩

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Chinese

[edit]
this place; here does not exist silver three hundred tael(s)
trad. (此地無銀三百兩/此地無銀三百両) 此地 /
simp. (此地无银三百两) 此地
Literally: “There are no 300 taels of silver (buried) here.”

Etymology

[edit]

The first half of a longer sentence: 此地隔壁不曾 (cǐdì wú yín sān bǎi liǎng, gébì Wáng Èr bùcéng tōu), literally “There are no 300 taels of silver (buried) here. The neighbour Wang Er did not steal (the silver).”

It is said to come from a story about a man named Zhang San (). According to the story, he buried 300 taels of silver in the ground with the banner “There are no 300 taels of silver (buried) here” so that no one would steal them. But his neighbor Wang Er () saw through the lie and dug up the money, leaving the banner “Your neighbour Wang Er did not steal (the silver)”.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Idiom

[edit]

此地無銀三百兩

  1. a clumsy denial resulting in self-exposure; a very poor lie which reveals the truth; protest one's innocence too much; the lady doth protest too much

Synonyms

[edit]