created sense approved 郢书燕说/郢書燕說 · yǐngshūyānshuō · misinterpret original meaning; distorted interpretation — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"
郢书燕说 / 郢書燕說
yǐngshūyānshuō
misinterpret original meaning; distorted interpretation
To give a distorted interpretation of a text or statement; to misinterpret the original meaning by reading in ideas that are not there. Originally refers to a story from [[韩非子|韓非子|han2 fei1 zi3]] where a letter from the city of [[郢|郢|ying3]] inadvertently included the words "hold up the candle", which the minister of [[燕|燕|yan1]] mistakenly interpreted as advice to "promote the wise".
郢 (literal) → 郢 · yǐng · Ying 书 (literal) → 书/書 · shū · letter 燕 (literal) → 燕 · yān · Yan state 说 (literal) → 说/說 · shuō · to explain
Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition