飯筐 and 水瓢

[82riceballs]

I was reading an explanation of 單瓢屢空 in my chengyu textbook:

After including many other ways of describing people living in poverty,

「單瓢屢空」 這家人飯筐、水瓢常常是空的

Can someone please explain what 飯筐 and 水瓢 are?

I think they probably refer to obsolete household items, since I couldn't find them in dictionaries...

Thanks in advance!

[skylee]

The chengyu is "簞瓢屢空 ". 單 is wrong. Take a look ->

http://140.111.34.54/files/site_content/M0001/biansz/bi202.htm

For what a 水瓢 is, take a look -> http://images.google.com.hk/images?gbv=2&complete=1&hl=zh-TW&q=%E6%B0%B4%E7%93%A2&btnG=%E6%90%9C%E5%B0%8B%E5%9C%96%E7%89%87&aq=-1&oq=

筐 is a ratten / plastic basket / container. These come up after a search for "筐" -> http://images.google.com.hk/images?complete=1&hl=zh-TW&q=%E7%AD%90&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Edited July 24, 2008 at 10:39 PM by skylee

[82riceballs]

Thanks for the correction and the pictures!

[Annaliu]

Hello!

This chengyu is little used in daily communication.

饭筐 is container for food, such as rice. 饭 point to 米饭 usually, 筐 means big container.

水瓢 is also container, but for water. It is made of calabash, 瓢 is calabash.

In Chinese,

箪食壶浆 is a Chengyu.