Chinese idiom · 成语
捉影捕风
Meaning
Chase shadows, catch wind; pursuing illusions.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary imageA shadow cannot be held in the hand, and wind cannot be caught like a solid object. The expression draws on these impossible actions to describe an effort without a firm object or a claim without substance. An exact use appears in Tian Rucheng's Ming-period Xi Hu Youlan Zhi Yu, in a discussion of poems about particular objects. He warns that writing too far from the assigned subject becomes a matter of chasing shadows and wind.
Journey to the West, chapter 25, also uses the phrase for the futility of trying to hold an elusive opponent. From this image comes the familiar criticism of groundless conjecture or accusation: there is nothing solid to grasp.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
仅凭一张模糊的照片就断言他辞职了，未免捉影捕风。
To declare that he has resigned based only on a blurry photograph is surely jumping to conclusions without evidence.
Critical: unsupported speculation or an attempt to grasp something insubstantial; related to 捕风捉影.