大有文章 (dà yǒu wén zhāng) — there's more than meets the eye; a situation has hidden significance or deeper meaning

Definition

Set phrase (chengyu) meaning a situation or words hide a deeper meaning or hidden agenda. Used as a predicate: 里面/话里大有文章.

verb
there's more than meets the eyea situation has hidden significance or deeper meaning

Examples

  • ，。
    Zhè ge jì huà lǐ miàn dà yǒu bù shǎo wén zhāng, nǐ yào zǐ xì kàn kàn.
    There's quite a lot of hidden meaning in this plan; you need to look carefully.
  • ，大有文章。
    Zhè jiàn shì kàn qǐ lái jiǎn dān, qí shí dà yǒu wén zhāng.
    This matter seems simple, but there's more than meets the eye.
  • 大有文章，。
    Lǎo bǎn de huà lǐ dà yǒu wén zhāng, nǐ yào rèn zhēn xiǎng xiǎng.
    There's more to the boss's words than meets the eye; you should think carefully.

Origin

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
肉肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
又
又yòu有yǒu
Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The current form 文 shows a man with head, arms, legs, and chest; the tattoo marks on the chest are no longer drawn.

Open 文 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

章 shows a chisel piercing a piece of jade in the middle. It originally meant treating jade.

Open 章 →

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