Chinese idiom · 成语
水落石出
Meaning
The truth is revealed when conditions clear.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary landscape imageThe landscape image is found in Song-period writing. Ouyang Xiu’s Zuiweng Ting Ji (醉翁亭記) describes seasonal changes around a mountain pavilion, including water receding or clearing to expose stones; the wording varies among editions. Su Shi’s Hou Chibi Fu (後赤壁賦) uses the exact four characters while describing the river landscape on a later visit to Red Cliff.
In these settings the stones are literal features newly visible as the water changes. Later writers apply the image to truth emerging when confusion or concealment is removed. The idiom’s modern meaning is therefore an extension of landscape description, not the outcome of a mystery investigated in the original works.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
查过邮件记录后，交货延误的原因终于水落石出了。
After checking the email records, we finally established why the delivery was delayed.
Use when an unclear matter becomes clear through evidence or clarification.