📖 Meaning
Describes the painstaking effort of composing poetry through deep contemplation. It portrays a poet who shuts himself away to ponder over the right words and verses. The phrase conveys the laborious and meditative nature of literary creation.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom derives from 'Quesao Bian' (却扫编), a work by Xu Du of the Song Dynasty. The book recounts how a scholar would stroll through the woods with his students, then return home looking grave and troubled. He would go straight to his bed, pull a quilt over himself, and groan for a long time in deep thought. Suddenly he would start up, seize a brush, and write swiftly until a complete poem emerged. The anecdote vividly captures the intense mental labor behind poetic composition.
💡 Example Usage
他闭门觅句三天，终于写出一首满意的绝句。
After shutting himself away for three days agonizing over every line, he finally completed a quatrain he was satisfied with.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 闭门觅句
- Pinyin: bì mén mì jù
- Literal Translation: close, door, seek, lines
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4