Four-Character Idiom · Reflection & Mortality · Kyojuro Rengoku
驚天動地
Meaning
A development so unexpected that it startles the heavens and shakes the earth — used of news that breaks every reasonable expectation.
世間をひどく驚かせるような想定外の事態。
The Kyojuro Rengoku line
Verbatim from the source article
「よもやよもやだ」
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"
Why it fits Kyojuro Rengoku
Rengoku's archaic catchphrase 「よもやよもや」 is the modern colloquial form of kyōten-dōchi. Where the classical idiom shakes heaven and earth, the modern repetition shakes only the speaker — but the structure (the impossibility of believing what just happened) is identical.
Sources
- デジタル大辞泉 — 驚天動地 (dictionary)
- 精選版 日本国語大辞典 — 驚天動地 (dictionary)