翻天覆地 (fān tiān fù dì)

Character breakdown

• 翻 (fān) · 18 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 羽 represents the meaning and 番 represents the sound.

• 天 (tiān) · 4 strokes

  Depicts a person (大) with an emphasized head. Based on the original meaning "head". The meaning later shifted to "top", "high", and "sky".

• 覆 (fù) · 18 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 襾 represents the meaning and 復 represents the sound.

• 地 (de) · 6 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 也 represents the sound.

Usage

改革开放以来，中国发生了翻天覆地的变化。

sky and the earth turning upside down (idiom); fig. complete confusion; everything turned on its head

gǎi gé kāi fàng yǐ lái ， zhōng guó fā shēng le fān tiān fù dì de biàn huà 。