瓜皮搭李树 — “To be completely unrelated or a poor fit”

Q: What is the Chinese definition of 瓜皮搭李树?

根本搭不上。指强认亲族。

瓜皮搭李树 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to be completely unrelated or a poor fit”. To falsely claim kinship or a connection that does not exist. Literally, “Melon peel leaning on a plum tree”.

Frequency

瓜皮搭李树 Pronunciation and Pinyin

瓜皮搭李树 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
瓜	guā	5	Melon or gourd
皮	pí	5	skin, hide, peel, surface
搭	dā	12	take a ride
李	lǐ	7	plum tree or fruit
树	shù	9	tree or plant

Example Sentence with 瓜皮搭李树

他声称自己是那位著名画家的远亲，但大家听了都觉得是瓜皮搭李树，毫无根据。

His claim of being a distant relative of that famous painter felt like a melon peel leaning on a plum tree to everyone — utterly baseless.

Origin and Story of 瓜皮搭李树

During the Song Dynasty, there was a man from Quannan named Lin Hong, whose courtesy name was Longfa and literary name was Keshan. He claimed to be the seventh-generation descendant of Lin Bu, who was renowned as the 'plum-wife and crane-son' scholar. However, it was widely known that Lin Bu had never married. At that time, someone composed a satirical poem: 'Hejing (Lin Bu) took no wife in his days, leaving only a crane and a young attendant. Yet Keshan claims lineage from Gushan; truly, a melon peel leaning on a plum tree.'