📖 Meaning
Refers to merchants hoarding rare goods to drive up prices and reap excessive profit. It describes profiteering through speculation and cornering the market. The term carries a critical connotation toward exploitative commercial practices.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Book of Han (汉书), specifically the Treatise on Food and Money (食货志), which describes how large merchants accumulated goods to earn double interest while petty traders sold from stalls, 'manipulating their surplus and rare goods.' The Tang scholar Yan Shigu annotated that 'qí yíng' refers to having surplus wealth and hoarding exotic objects. Over time the phrase came to describe merchants who hoard scarce commodities to speculate for profit.
💡 Example Usage
使豁然于操奇逐赢之故，而后分者可合，散者可聚。
Once one clearly understands the reason why merchants hoard rare goods to profiteer, what was divided can be reunited and what was scattered can be gathered.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 操奇逐赢
- Pinyin: cāo qì zhù yíng
- Literal Translation: hold, rare, pursue, profit
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4