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Meaning & History
Diaochan is the name of one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. Her name literally means "sable cicada" in Chinese (貂 diāo "sable", 蝉 chán "cicada"), believed to have been derived from the sable tails and jade decorations in the shape of cicadas which adorned the hats of high-ranking officials in the Eastern Han dynasty. Although Diaochan is based on a minor historical personage, she is mostly a fictional character. She is best known for her role in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which romanticises the events in the late Eastern Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.
Diaochan is said to have been so luminously beautiful that the Moon itself would shy away in embarrassment when compared to her face. This description serves as the meaning behind the third pair of characters of the Chinese idiom 沉魚落雁, 閉月羞花 (pinyin: chényú luòyàn, bìyuè xiūhuā), referring to the Four Beauties, which is used to compliment a woman's beauty, meaning one is so beautiful she sinks fish and entices birds to fall, eclipses the moon and shames flowers, (literally "Fish dive/Goose fall, Moon hide/Flower shame").
Diaochan is said to have been so luminously beautiful that the Moon itself would shy away in embarrassment when compared to her face. This description serves as the meaning behind the third pair of characters of the Chinese idiom 沉魚落雁, 閉月羞花 (pinyin: chényú luòyàn, bìyuè xiūhuā), referring to the Four Beauties, which is used to compliment a woman's beauty, meaning one is so beautiful she sinks fish and entices birds to fall, eclipses the moon and shames flowers, (literally "Fish dive/Goose fall, Moon hide/Flower shame").