一唱三叹
yī chàng sān tàn
lingering and moving (of music, poetry or prose)
Character by character
一yī
one
one
唱chàng
sing
sing
三sān
three
three
叹tàn
sigh
sigh
Example
这篇写母亲的散文语言朴素，却一唱三叹，读到最后让人忍不住流泪。
This essay about the writer’s mother is plain in language yet full of lingering feeling, and by the end it is hard not to cry.
Tone: positive (praise).
Usage and origin
From 《礼记·乐记》 and 《荀子·礼论》, on the music of ritual: at the ancestral temple one voice led and three joined in harmony (一倡而三叹), so the sound lingered. Now praise for melodies that dwell on each word, and for poems and prose whose feeling rises and returns.
Learn this in Lesson 240 · HSK 9+: 昆曲《牡丹亭》 (Kunqu and The Peony Pavilion)
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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