Convey Love Secretly

Diao Chan is one of the four most beautiful women in Chinese history. This idiom is a story about this ancient beauty. It tells you how to convey your love with a secret soft look.

Today's idiom reads “An Song Qiu Bo.” Literally, it means “to convey one's love with a secret soft look.” Here is the story behind the phrase.

In ancient China's Eastern Han Dynasty, the royal family became weaker, and in the late period the country was controlled by a greedy man called Dong Zhuo. That worried Wang Yun, who was an honest high-ranking government official. He even thought of killing Dong Zhuo, which was not an easy thing to do.

One night, Wang Yun cried in his garden for not being able to find a good way to get rid of Dong Zhuo. Suddenly, he heard a woman singing. It was Diao Chan, a beautiful singing girl supported by Wang Yun. She had grown up in Wang Yun's home, an Wang treated her as his daughter. Diao Chan would do anything to repay his grace and kindness. Seeing Diao Chan, WangYun suddenly thought of how he could achieve his goal for the state and its people. He knew Dong Zhuo had an adopted son named Lv Bu, and both the father and the son were very fond of beautiful women. So Wan Yun decided to ask Diao Chan to help him cast a bone of contention between the two men.

The next day, Wang Yun invited Lv Bu to a banquet and introduced Diao Chan to the young man. Wang Yun said, “I want Diao Chan to be your concubine. Do you like the idea? ” Of course, Lv Bu accepted the offer, and he couldn't help giving glances full of love to the beauty. And Diao Chan returned the young man's amorous looks.

Later, people drew the idiom “An Song Qiu Bo” from the eye contact between Lv Bu and Diao Chan. It means to secretly convey love with a soft look.

But you must be eager to know if the Wang Yun's trick worked. Of course! He also introduced Diao Chan to Lv Bu's father, Dong Zhuo, and let Dong Zhuo take her back home. Needless to say, this angered the son, who then killed his father in a jealous rage. We're not sure what happened to Diao Chan, but we're sure she was fine.

OK, that's the story behind the idiom An Song Qiu Bo. And we still use it today to describe loving glances between two lovers. But sometimes, much less romantic, it indicates collusion between bad guys.