sexual intercourse; euphemism for sex
Meanings
1 sense · 4 examplesverb
to have sexual intercourse (euphemistic)
literaryA literary euphemism originating from Song Yu's 'Gaotang Fu' (高唐赋). In the text, the goddess of Mount Wu tells King Huai of Chu: 'In the morning I am clouds, in the evening I am rain' (旦为朝云，暮为行雨). This allusion has become a standard poetic and literary reference for sexual relations between men and women, commonly found in classical literature and early modern novels.
In Dream of the Red Chamber, the 'affairs of clouds and rain' are often used to allude to the relationship between Baoyu and Daiyu.
In ancient novels, 'the clouds and rain of Mount Wu' was commonly used to describe the intimacy between male and female protagonists.
Show 2 more examplesShow fewer examples
This is merely a cliché of the 'joy of clouds and rain' commonly used in scholar-beauty novels.
In 'Gaotang Fu', the phrase 'in the morning I am clouds, in the evening I am rain' later became the classical source of the term 'clouds and rain'.