📖 Meaning
Describes a person who harbors lofty ambitions and ideals that set them far apart from the ordinary. It is used to praise someone whose aspirations are uncommonly far-reaching and who is clearly destined for more than a mundane life.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the Song dynasty scholar-official Lou Yue, who wrote it in an epitaph titled Ji Xi Xian Wei Lou Jun Mu Zhi Ming for a kinsman serving as the bailiff of Jixi County. In the text he laments, 'My elder brother harbored aspirations that were anything but ordinary, yet they were never given a chance to be put to use.' The epitaph thus honored a man of great promise whose talents went unrecognized in his lifetime. Over the centuries the expression entered common literary use, famously appearing in the first chapter of Cao Xueqin's Qing dynasty novel Dream of the Red Chamber.
💡 Example Usage
他少年时就抱负不凡，立志要干出一番大事业。
Even as a youth he harbored extraordinary ambitions, resolved to accomplish something truly great.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 抱负不凡
- Pinyin: bào fù bù fán
- Literal Translation: aspiration, not, ordinary
- Category: Determination
- Characters: 4