破镜重圆 – Po Jing Chong Yuan – Reunion of Lovers

Chengyu

破镜重圆 – pò jìng chóng yuán

Chinese Character Break Down

破 – broken
镜 – mirror
重 – again
圆 – round

破镜重圆: The broken mirror is round again

Idiom Meaning

Expresses the reunion of two lovers who haven’t seen each other for a long time.

Chengyu Examples

很多年以后他们终于破镜重圆了。
hěnduō nián hòu tāmen zhōngyú pòjìngchóngyuánle.
After many years they finally reunited.

他们几年前分手了，不过现在又破镜重圆了。
tāmen jǐniánqián fēnshǒule, búguò xiànzài yòu pòjìngchóngyuánle.
They broke up a few years ago but now got back together.

Chengyu Story and Background

There once was a beautiful girl named A Ying. She met a courageous and handsome boy called Da Ming and the two of them fell in love, got married and had a baby. However, the Barbarians of the North threatened the country and the emperor called the country’s men to go to war.

Da Ming was afraid he may never see his family again. He took a round mirror, broke it into two halves and gave one of them to A Ying. “Keep this with you at all times”, he said, “and I am certain we will reunite again some day.”

The war was very fierce, and while Da Ming was fighting bravely, under the Barbarians’ attack, A Ying and the baby had to leave the village they lived in. At her new home, she missed Da Ming even more. Whenever the yearning was at it’s high, she would look at her half mirror and hope to see Da Ming again soon.

When the war was over and Da Mings troops beat off the enemy, he realized his old home was not there anymore. He told everyone his story and showed them his half mirror. His situations was so touching, that all the people helped to look for the girl with the other half mirror and eventually found her – and since that day, the Chinese say “the broken mirror is round again” when two lovers reunite after a long period of separation.