📖 Meaning
Describes the early dawn when the sky is just beginning to grow light but is still dim and hazy. The phrase paints a quiet, tender picture of daybreak, when the first rays of morning light are barely visible. It is often used to set a serene or expectant mood at the start of a day.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Eastern Jin dynasty writer Tao Yuanming (陶渊明, also known as Tao Qian). In his prose-poem Gui Qu Lai Xi Ci (《归去来兮辞》), written around 405 CE when he resigned from his official post to return to his rural home, he describes traveling home at dawn: '问征夫以前路，恨晨光之熹微' — asking a traveler which road lay ahead while regretting that the morning light was still so faint. The poet regretted the dimness of the dawn because he was anxious to get home quickly. The line later became the source of the idiom 晨光熹微, meaning the early light of daybreak.
💡 Example Usage
晨光熹微中，他踏上了远行的山路。
In the faint light of dawn, he set out on the mountain road for his long journey.
🏷️ Category
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🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 晨光熹微
- Pinyin: chén guāng xī wēi
- Literal Translation: morning, light, faint glow, dim
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4