A Heavenly Dress Without Seams

The Chinese idiom 天衣无缝 (tian1 yi1 wu2 feng4) literally means a heavenly dress without seams. The saying originates from a story written by Niu Qiao of pre-Shu in the Five Dynasties.

One hot summer night a young man called Han Guo could not get to sleep. So he went outside and sat on a straw mattress in his courtyard to try to enjoy what breeze there was. He sat there staring into the sky and began to daydream. He thought about the legend of the goddess of the moon and the legendary romance between the cowherd and a lady spinner. He speculated that because the lady spinner was now a fairy in heaven, all the colourful clouds seen at dawn and dusk must be her works.

Then suddenly one of the clouds in the dark sky transformed into a beautiful young fairy woman. He could not believe his eyes. The woman explained that she was the weaver that he had been imagining moments ago. The young man could barely contain his excitment. He survey the beautiful woman from head to toe. He saw that her dress was a work of wonder, sewn without a single seam. He asked the weaver whether she had made the dress herself. She replied:

Yes, I tailored it. It is a heavenly dress so it has no seams.

When the young man awoke from his dream, the lady spinner was gone. However, he was very excited about recounting his amazing story to his neighbours.

Today, the Chinese idiom 天衣无缝 (tian1 yi1 wu2 feng4) is used to describe a well devised plan that is difficult to evade of nullify. English-speakers describe such plans as watertight - for example, a watertight legal case.