山明水净夜来霜

山明水淨夜來霜
shān míng shuǐ jìng yè lái shuāng
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 hills bright, waters clean - frost arrives by night
  2. 2 (fig.) the clarifying austerity of deep autumn, sharper than summer or spring
  3. 3 (lit.) mountain-bright water-clean night-come frost

Examples

HSK 4
Běifāng de qiūtiān zhēn yǒu shānmíngshuǐjìngyèláishuāng de wèidào.
Northern autumn truly has the flavor of 'bright hills, clean waters, frost by night.'
HSK 7-9
Tā zài péngyǒuquān pèi tú shānmíngshuǐjìngyèláishuāng, ràng rén yí kàn jiù xiǎng chūmén shǎng qiū.
He captioned the photo on WeChat 'bright hills, clean waters, frost by night' - it made everyone want to go out and enjoy autumn.

Tips

history
Opening of 刘禹锡《秋词二首·其二》 (Liu Yuxi, Autumn Songs II, No. 2, Tang, early 9th c.): 山明水净夜来霜,数树深红出浅黄。试上高楼清入骨,岂如春色嗾人狂 (Bright hills, clean waters, frost by night; a few trees of deep red stand out among the pale yellows. Try climbing the high tower - the clarity pierces to the bone. How could spring's riot compare?). Liu Yuxi is famous for rejecting the stock "autumn-as-melancholy" trope; for him autumn is crisper and more inspiring than spring.
usage
Always paired with the following 数树深红出浅黄 to form a couplet. 净 is the simplified form (traditional 淨). 霜 here functions as a verb-like event: "frost comes in the night."

Stroke Order

山 shān
明 míng
水 shuǐ
净 jìng
夜 yè
来 lái
霜 shuāng