断章取义

Pronunciation: duàn zhāng qǔ yì Literal meaning: Cut out a passage, take its meaning

Origin & Usage

In Spring and Autumn China, educated men quoted the Odes at each other, and the etiquette allowed cutting a stanza (断章) loose from its poem and taking (取) whatever sense (义) you needed. The Zuo Zhuan phrase is 赋诗断章，余取所求焉 — in reciting an ode one cuts the stanza out, and I take from it what I want — said by Lupu Gui, who was using the poetry habit as an analogy to excuse marrying a woman of his own clan. It was courtesy rather than dishonesty, because everyone knew the whole poem. The phrase has since reversed completely. It is now the standard Chinese accusation of quoting out of context, and it assumes the audience does not know the rest.

Examples

English: "He misinterpreted her words, taking them out of context to support his argument."

Chinese: 他误解了她的话，断章取义地支持自己的论点。