雁点青天字一行

雁點青天字一行
yàn diǎn qīngtiān zì yì háng
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 wild geese dot the blue sky, a line of calligraphy
  2. 2 a flight of geese in V-formation resembling a written character
  3. 3 (lit.) geese dotting blue sky, characters in one line

Examples

HSK 6
Tā yòng xiàngjī pāi xià yàndiǎnqīngtiānzìyìháng de shùnjiān.
He photographed the moment when the geese formed a line of script across the blue sky.
HSK 7-9
Shēnqiū de tiānkōng, yàndiǎnqīngtiānzìyìháng, měi rú huàjuàn.
In the late-autumn sky, 'wild geese dot the blue, a line of calligraphy' - beautiful as a painted scroll.

Tips

history
From Bai Juyi's Tang poem 《江楼晚眺景物鲜奇吟玩成篇寄水部张员外》: 风翻白浪花千片,雁点青天字一行 (Wind flips the white waves into a thousand petals; geese dot the blue sky, a line of writing.) A celebrated parallel couplet - the waves are 'flower petals,' the geese 'a line of characters,' turning sky and water into natural calligraphy.
usage
Paired with 风翻白浪花千片 from the same poem - the two lines form one of the most quoted parallel couplets of Tang regulated verse. 点 here is a verb: 'to dot (the sky).'

Stroke Order

雁 yàn
点 diǎn
青 qīng
天 tiān
字 zì
一 yī
行 xíng