📖 Meaning
To shirk heavier responsibilities and take on only the lighter ones. It describes someone who dodges difficult or burdensome duties while gladly handling what is easy. The idiom carries a mildly critical tone toward evasive or self-serving behavior.
📜 Origin Story
This is a variant of the more common idiom 避重就轻, and its only recorded example comes from the Yuan Dynasty administrative compilation 《元典章》 (Institutions and Precedents of the Yuan Court). In the section on postal relay households (站户), the text criticizes families that registered wealthy, able-bodied members to avoid heavy service obligations, letting brothers take on lighter duties instead. Over time the phrase crystallized into 避重逐轻, used to describe dodging weighty responsibilities in favor of trivial ones. No single named author is credited; it survives as a legal-administrative idiom from the Yuan period (13th–14th century).
💡 Example Usage
他工作中总是避重逐轻，把难题都推给别人。
At work he always avoids the heavy tasks and pursues the light ones, pushing all the difficult problems onto others.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 避重逐轻
- Pinyin: bì zhòng zhú qīng
- Literal Translation: avoid, heavy, pursue, light
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4