📖 Meaning
To let a matter end by deliberately not settling it — shelving it aside and treating it as finished. It describes dealing with a problem by ignoring or abandoning it rather than resolving it properly.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the Song dynasty writer Ye Shaoyun's (叶少蕴, i.e. Ye Mengde) work Bishu Lu Hua (《避暑录话》). He cites a Tang dynasty anecdote in which a muddled chief examiner, known as a 'donghong' (foggy-headed) official, mistakenly assumed the candidate Yan Biao was a kinsman of the celebrated loyal minister Yan Zhenqing (Duke of Lu) and passed him, prompting the jest that 'the examiner's head was too muddled, mistaking Yan Biao for the Duke of Lu.' Ye remarks that such loose talk was 'buliǎoliǎozhī yǔ' — words that settle nothing — and from this expression the idiom evolved to mean leaving a matter unresolved.
💡 Example Usage
这件事拖了半年，最后不了了之。
This matter was dragged out for half a year and was ultimately left unresolved.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 不了了之
- Pinyin: bù liǎo liǎo zhī
- Literal Translation: not, conclude, conclude, it
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4