niǎo jìset phrasetraces left in the air by a bird
Domain: Buddhism 佛教
Notes: A metaphor for something that is not real in the 大般涅槃經 Mahaparinirvana Sutra (Blum 2007, p. 29; FGDB '鳥迹'; T 374, Scroll 2; SH '鳥迹', p. 366)
niǎo jìphrasebird tracks
Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
Notes: Collocation: from 文心雕龍·原道 “The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons”, The Way is the Source by 劉勰 Liu Xie (Amies 2021 tr.; see also tr. in Liu and Shi 2015, loc. 1281)