Chinese idiom · 成语
天昏地暗
Meaning
Sky dims, earth darkens; chaotic turmoil.
Character by character
Origin and story
Poetic image and later usageDarkened sky and earth provide the basic picture. Han Yu's Tang poem Long Yi uses the related form tian hun di hei when depicting dragons moving amid thunder and lightning. That is poetic, supernatural imagery; it does not establish dragons as the cause of actual storms, and its final character differs from this entry.
The exact form appears in later fiction, including Investiture of the Gods. In The Scholars, it exaggerates the intensity of someone's weeping rather than describing a literal loss of daylight. The phrase can therefore indicate physical darkness, overwhelming tumult or emotion, or a figuratively disordered political world, depending on context.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
暴雨来临前，外面天昏地暗，我们赶紧收回晾晒的衣服。
Before the downpour, everything outside grew dark, and we hurried to bring in the laundry.
Literal darkness or emphatic exaggeration; the context sets the sense.