1.
truth and falsehood; fact and fiction; reality and pretense
The combination or interplay of what is true and what is false. Often used to describe situations where it is difficult to distinguish truth from lies, or where reality and fiction are deliberately blurred.
虚実入り混じった話だ。
It's a story where truth and fiction are mixed together.
彼の証言は虚実が分かりにくい。
It's hard to tell what's true and what's false in his testimony.
インターネット上の情報は虚実が入り混じっているので、注意が必要だ。
Information on the internet mixes truth with falsehood, so caution is needed.
Composed of 虚 (empty, false) + 実 (real, true). Describes the intermingling of truth and falsehood, often with the implication that they are difficult to separate.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 虚実入り混じる: truth and fiction mixed together
- 虚実を見極める: to discern truth from falsehood
- 虚実皮膜の間: the boundary between fiction and reality (a concept from Chikamatsu)
- 虚実が分からない: unable to tell truth from fiction
CULTURAL NOTE:
The phrase 虚実皮膜の間 (literally 'the membrane between fiction and reality') is attributed to the Edo-period playwright 近松門左衛門 and is a foundational concept in Japanese aesthetics of drama and narrative.
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 真偽: truth or falsehood — focuses on determining whether something is true or false; more binary
- 虚構: fiction, fabrication — refers to something entirely made up, not a mixture of truth and lies