What do you mean, nothing was lost?

"The eight characters are not yet clear": a metaphor for things that have not yet been done.

Think about it, how to write the word "eight"? The first one is "hmm", and the first one is not written. How can there be a complete "eight"?

At first, people used "eight characters not left" to describe the marriage between men and women. "Eight characters" refers to the date of birth of men and women.

In the old days, there was a common name "send eight characters", which meant formal engagement. First of all, parents of both men and women ask fortune tellers for their wedding birthdays. If the constellations match, the man chooses his birthday, and the man exchanges parties with the woman on an auspicious day, commonly known as "sending constellations". In ancient times, the birthdays of both men and women had to be together (that is, not contradictory) before they could get married.

Source:

1 volume 3 of "common sayings": "popular compilation": "Zhu Xi and Liu Zicheng": the sage opened eight characters, but people themselves don't understand. "According to today's statement, there is a proverb called' eight characters don't see two', which seems to be because of this. People who have no end to everything are said to have never seen both sides of the eight characters. "

In his article "A Letter with Liu Zicheng", he said this: "The sage opened eight characters, but people did not understand, but went crazy." The meaning of this passage is that the door of saints has long been opened, but people have ignored it. They didn't go in, but went out. Although the theme of this sentence is to let people learn the way of sages, it shows Zhu's regret, regret and helplessness for those who don't recognize the door. However, he would never have thought that this sentence turned out to be the source of this sentence. The problem lies in his "eight", just like two doors. Zhu used eight metaphors here, which are undoubtedly very vivid. If you don't leave the word "eight characters", there is no way. At present, we often say "no way" (meaning impossible) and "no way to go" (meaning no way to go), if traced back to the source, I'm afraid both come from this. Like anything in the world, proverbs are developing and their meanings are changing. The word "eight characters without a curl" originally refers to an impossible and irrelevant pronoun.

After that, "there is nothing left in the eight characters" and "there is nothing left in the eight characters" are metaphors that things haven't got a clue yet.

For example, Chapter 2 and Chapter 9 of Legend of Heroes of Children: "Otherwise, my sister just thought, I dare to draw my sister and him on a picture before I have time to say anything?"

Another example is Lao She's Four Generations under One Family: "Although the story of saving Mr. Qian has not been forgotten, there is hope at last."

5 originated from Zen. "Continued Lamp Record" Volume 29: "Ask who it is and can't say anything." It means don't show signs.