破镜重圆
pò jìng chóng yuán
a separated couple are reunited
Character by character
破pò
broken
broken
镜jìng
mirror
mirror
重chóng
again
again
圆yuán
whole
whole
Example
离婚三年后，两个人又走到了一起，朋友们都说这是破镜重圆。
Three years after their divorce the two of them got back together, and their friends all said the broken mirror had been made whole.
Tone: positive (praise).
Usage and origin
From a Tang anecdote in 孟棨’s 《本事诗》: as the Chen dynasty was collapsing, Princess Lechang (乐昌公主) and her husband broke a bronze mirror and each kept half; after its fall the halves were matched in the capital and the couple were reunited. Used of couples, and loosely of any reconciliation.
Learn this in Lesson 152 · HSK 7–9: 离婚冷静期 (The divorce cooling-off period)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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