What do you mean by loose orpiment? Why does it mean nonsense?

China has a vast territory and rich culture. Even Chinese characters have a lot of knowledge. Idioms, as a part of China's profound culture, are rare treasures in China's knowledge treasure house. There may be some profound allusions behind every idiom, so they can be used all the time and become a unique part of our daily language.

As mentioned just now, many idioms are actually not what their superficial words indicate, but they may be related to a story or character in history, and more usages have been derived over time. Just like orpiment in this idiom, many people don't know what it is and why it is related to nonsense.

In fact, we can find that orpiment is a mineral pigment by consulting relevant information, and its color is generally lemon yellow. On many murals in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, many statues were painted with this mineral pigment. In ancient China, its function was equivalent to correction fluid or correction tape used by modern people. Because the ancients had not invented bleaching technology, most of the papers they used at that time were light yellow. Because the colors are close, when you accidentally write a typo, you will paint it on the paper with orpiment and rewrite it.

Because orpiment has such a purpose, you can modify it at will when writing with orpiment, and then expand its meaning to nonsense. Speaking of it, this idiom is related to a minister in the Western Jin Dynasty. There was a man named Wang Yan at that time. He likes to talk about Laozi and Zhuangzi's theory in front of people, but his understanding of Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy is very superficial, so there are often illogical and inconsistent situations when discussing with people. Over time, everyone who listened to his lecture thought that what he said was just lip service, which was not enough to be believed.

Therefore, by learning this idiom, we can know more clearly why China's culture is profound.