Definition
天书 literally means 'heavenly book.' Historically it referred to imperial edicts from the emperor, and in Daoism it denotes sacred texts from heaven. In modern everyday usage, however, it is a vivid metaphor for any writing that is utterly illegible, incomprehensible, or impossibly difficult to understand — like 'it's all Greek to me.' You might use it to describe terrible handwriting, a dense academic paper, or a document written in a foreign script you can't decipher.
n.
(figurative) illegible or incomprehensible writingsomething impossible to read or understand(historical) imperial edictimperial order(Daoism) celestial bookheavenly scripture
Examples
- ，天书。Tā de zì xiě de tài liáocǎo, kàn qǐlai xiàng tiān shū yíyàng.His handwriting is so scrawled it looks like an incomprehensible mess.
- ，天书。Zài gǔdài, huángdì de zhàoshū bèi chēngwéi tiān shū.In ancient times, the emperor's edict was called a heavenly book.
- 天书，。Zhè piān xuéshù lùnwén duì wǒ láishuō jiǎnzhí jiùshì tiān shū, wánquán kàn bù dǒng.This academic paper is simply a heavenly book to me; I can't understand it at all.
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