When we were talking about chengyu 知难而上, one my Chinese friend said,
你没看出来这里面的玄机
Then he explained 知难而上 can be understood as 知男而上.
By the dictionary, 玄机 means mystery. However, I think it being traslated to
You don't see the mystery.
is inappropriate.
What is the exact meaning?
Try understand it this way:
"You don't see the mechanics behind it." (You don't know how it works.)
BTW, 知难而上 means you know something's hard but you still go for it regardless, it certainly can NOT be understood as 知男而上, he was just trolling.
玄机 basically means the tricky/wicked logic behind scene which you or normal people will never think of, but it actually work very well in the reality.
However,the case here is kind of wrong way. but it might borrow the word and express the similar meaning. because here it actually means funky and funny logic which might make you laugh. 知难而上 =>知男而上 it is just Chinese word trick
I think this talking is in such a situation: 1. The chengyu 知难而上 is used in a sentence. 2. Your friend said that 你没看出来这里面的玄机 and he explained that 知难而上 can be understood as 知男而上.
The mystery (玄机) is that the sentence uses 知难而上 instead of 知男而上, since they have the same pronounce. Why this is a mystery? Because you cannot understand the sentence if you do not know the original word 知男而上 for 知难而上.
May I guess he is talking about 哲♂學. It's a subculture (亞文化) in China. 哲♂學 originates from several porn films Billy Harrington starring in. There are many （梗/哏）in this subculture. For example: 迎男而上/男上加男/滿頭大漢/左右為男 etc. When typing them, one usually adds ♂ in between.
When we were talking about chengyu 知难而上, one my Chinese friend said,
你没看出来这里面的玄机
Then he explained 知难而上 can be understood as 知男而上
玄机 means mystery,
and the mystery here, contextually is the punchline/pun
