The Meaning of Plants (20)

红杏出墙：A spray of red apricot blossom has already stuck out over the wall. It normally means, a woman be unfaithful to her husband.

叶绍翁 was a poet of South Song Dynasty (12/June/1127—19/march/1279). One of his poem游园不值 ‘A not worth travel’ said:

应怜屐齿印苍苔,

I am pity my shoes that stepped on the green moss,

 小扣柴扉久不开。

As I have knocked door of brushwood long but no one answer.

春色满园关不住，

The spring is full the garden, no one could confine it?

一枝红杏出墙来。

 A spray of red apricot blossom has already stuck out over the wall.

Later the film ‘The Adultress / Thérèse Raquin’ translated into Chinese is this红杏出墙

Pic from: http://zsxx.zhedu.net.cn/ebook/stuebook/gushi70/63.jpg

指桑骂槐 point at the mulberry and abuse the locust. It means on the surface that accuse one but in fact abuse another. It first appeared in a novel <金瓶梅词话>（1596）chapter 62.