Chinese idiom · 成语
罄竹难书
Meaning
Bamboo strips run out; too many crimes to record.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary imageThe imagery reaches back to writings made on bamboo strips. In the Ming Li chapter of Lüshi Chunqiu, a long catalogue of ominous disorders associated with bad government culminates in the claim that even all the bamboo of Jing and Yue would not suffice to record them. Sun Bin's military text uses a similar comparison for the innumerable variations of advantageous battle formations.
The image was therefore not originally restricted to crimes. Later accusations, including Li Mi's denunciation of the Sui ruler recorded in the Jiu Tang Shu, made the exhausted supply of bamboo a vivid measure of wrongdoing. Modern usage overwhelmingly condemns crimes too numerous to list.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
看完这部纪录片，我才知道那个犯罪团伙的罪行真是罄竹难书。
Only after watching the documentary did I realize how innumerable that criminal gang's offenses were.
Strongly negative in modern usage; not suitable for praising countless achievements.