📖 Meaning
To endure a life of poverty and monotony without complaint. It describes someone who bears hardship and a dull, frugal existence patiently, often out of loyalty or moral resolve. The idiom conveys quiet perseverance through lean circumstances.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the Ming dynasty story collection 《初刻拍案惊奇》 by Ling Mengchu (凌濛初), in scroll fifteen. In the tale, a man named Chen squanders the entire family fortune through dissolute behavior, leaving the household destitute. The narrator credits his wife, who patiently endured the ensuing poverty and hardship to hold the family together. Her steadfastness is praised with the words of the idiom.
💡 Example Usage
妻子毫无怨言地熬清守淡，独自把几个孩子拉扯成人。
Without a word of complaint, his wife endured the austere and monotonous life, raising their children to adulthood on her own.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 熬清守淡
- Pinyin: áo qīng shǒu dàn
- Literal Translation: endure, plain, keep, tasteless
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4