📖 Meaning
To parade the favors one has received and rely on being in someone's good graces. It describes someone who ostentatiously shows off the special treatment or privileges bestowed upon them, especially by a superior or sovereign.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom comes from a letter by Zhang Juzheng (1525–1582), the powerful Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty, titled 'Reply to Zhu Jinwu, Inspector of Huguang, Declining the Construction of a Pavilion.' When an official offered to build a commemorative pavilion in his honor, Zhang declined, writing that his lifelong learning lay in following his own conscience rather than seeking recognition. He declared he cared neither for contemporary praise and blame nor for the judgment of ten thousand generations, let alone wished to parade favors and lean on imperial grace to show off before the common people. The phrase thus embodies Zhang's humility and detachment from worldly vanity.
💡 Example Usage
他得宠后便侈恩席宠，到处张扬皇上的恩遇，很快招来非议。
After gaining favor, he paraded the imperial grace and leaned on that favor, flaunting the emperor's kindness everywhere, and soon drew criticism.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 侈恩席宠
- Pinyin: chǐ ēn xí chǒng
- Literal Translation: flaunt, favor, rely-on, favor
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4