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I gather that 皮肉 can literally mean "skin-meat." I also see that one
definition for 皮 is "mask (hiding one's true nature); seeming." So perhaps 皮肉
can be understood as "hiding the real meat," which can be related to irony.
What is the real answer?
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2012-11-23T18:06:00.440
9557
2019-08-23T06:31:16.303
2019-08-23T06:31:16.303
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question
meaning words etymology nouns religion
Why does 皮肉 mean "irony"?
snailplane's link says, it comes from 皮肉骨髄 "skin meat bones marrow" attributed
to the Bodhidharma of Chinese Zen Buddhism. Bones and marrow came to take on
the meaning of essential, skin and meat became synonymous with superficial.
From there, 皮肉 was also used as a word for criticizing faults/defects (which
stems from not recognizing the true nature of sth.), which seems to be its
primary current usage, e.g. the JDIC dictionary entry for the derived
[皮肉]{ひにく}る says:

> 皮肉る  
>  to speak cynically or with sarcasm

Although 皮肉 is sometimes best translated to irony, as in the fixed expression
皮肉なことに, e.g.

> バイトを辞めたんだけど、皮肉なことに、年中他の仕事でずっと忙しかった。  
>  I quit my part-time job, but ironically was busy with other work all year.

I think 皮肉 works best for cynicism/sarcasm or dark/pessimistic irony, rather
than the lighthearted variety of irony.
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2012-11-24T10:56:38.430
9568
2012-11-24T11:55:22.037
2012-11-24T11:55:22.037
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answer
皮{ひ}肉{にく} literally means "skin and flesh" and comes from the idiom
皮{ひ}肉{にく}骨{こつ}髄{ずい} ("[skin, flesh, bones, and
marrow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huike#Skin.2C_flesh.2C_bone.2C_marrow)").
This word comes from [Chán
Buddhism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_buddhism) in ancient China, and
refers to a legend about how the dharma passed from
[Bodhidharma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma) to
[Huìkě](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huike).

As the story goes, Bodhidharma wanted to return to India, so he had to choose
a successor. To do this, he asked each of his four disciples to express their
understanding of Chán. The first three expressed their understanding in words,
but the last, Huìkě, simply bowed in silence. Bodhidharma's judgment was that
the first three had attained his skin, flesh, and bones, but Huìkě had
attained his marrow, and so he passed the dharma on to Huìkě.

Although this legend has [multiple
interpretations](http://mro.org/zmm/teachings/daido/teisho18.php), only
[one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huike#Interpretation) is relevant to your
question: the four body parts represented a hierarchy from most superficial
understanding (skin) to the most essential (marrow). From this,
[皮肉](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%9A%AE%E8%82%89-611936#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88)
came to symbolize superficiality in general, while
[骨髄](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%AA%A8%E9%AB%84-65285#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88)
came to mean "essential", "core". (Note that while 骨髄 means "bone marrow", it
still has the figurative meaning as well.)

For the rest of the story, please see [Earthliŋ's
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/9557/why-
does-%E7%9A%AE%E8%82%89-mean-irony/9568#9568).
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2012-11-30T15:30:07.723
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2015-09-25T11:23:12.007
2017-04-13T12:43:44.260
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answer