蟾宮折桂

lit. plucking a branch of osmanthus from the Toad Palace (i.e. the moon) / fig. to succeed in the imperial examination

moon / (striped) toad

toad (chán represents the sound of its croaking) / (mythology) the three-legged toad said to exist in the moon / (metonym) the moon

surname Gong

palace / temple / castration (as corporal punishment) / first note in pentatonic scale

to snap / to break (a stick, a bone etc) / (bound form) to sustain a loss (in business)

to turn sth over / to turn upside down / to tip sth out (of a container)

to break / to fracture / to snap / to suffer loss / to bend / to twist / to turn / to change direction / convinced / to convert into (currency) / discount / rebate / tenth (in price) / classifier for theatrical scenes / to fold / accounts book

variant of 折[zhe2] / to fold

to win the laurels / to pass an imperial examination / to win a championship

surname Gui / abbr. for Guangxi Autonomous Region 廣西壯族自治區|广西壮族自治区[Guang3 xi1 Zhuang4 zu2 Zi4 zhi4 qu1]

cassia / laurel