怪力亂神

Chinese

queer; to blame power; force; strength in confusion; disorderly
God; unusual; mysterious
God; unusual; mysterious; soul; spirit; divine essence; lively; spiritual being
 
trad. (怪力亂神)
simp. (怪力乱神)

Etymology

From the Analects, Book 7 (《論語·述而》):

[Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
[Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]
From: The Analects of Confucius, c. 475 – 221 BCE, translated based on James Legge's version
Zǐ bù yǔ: guài, , luàn, shén. [Pinyin]
The subjects on which the Master did not talk, were — extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings.

Pronunciation


Idiom

怪力亂神

  1. (dated, literal) monstrousness, violence, rebellion and supernaturalism
  2. (figurative) superstition

Usage notes

This idiom was originally to be comprehended character by character, but people nowadays split it by two two-character endocentric phrases, hence the "superstition" meaning.