斷袖之癖

1. • lit. cut sleeve (idiom) fig. euphemism for homosexuality, originating from History of Western Han 汉书: emperor Han Aidi (real name Liu Xin) was in bed with his lover Dong Xian, and had to attend a court audience that morning. Not wishing to awaken Dong Xian, who was sleeping with his head resting on the emperor's long robe sleeve, Aidi used a knife to cut off the lower half of his sleeve.

Character by character

• 斷(duàn)break
• 袖(xiù)sleeve
• 之(zhī)(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的 de)
• 癖(pǐ)habit