📖 Meaning
This idiom describes someone who is infatuated with unrealistic hopes or harbors absurd fantasies about something impossible to achieve. It conveys a foolish combination of obsession and delusion, often used to mock wishful thinking or pipe dreams that have no chance of coming true.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom traces back to Ming Dynasty novelist Luo Guanzhong's work 'Ping Yao Zhuan' (The Suppressing of the Demons), Chapter 5. In the passage, a Daoist becomes infatuated and delusional, described as being like a toad dreaming of eating swan flesh—yearning for something utterly beyond his reach. The vivid imagery of the lowly toad lusting after swan meat became a classic metaphor for impossible longing. Over time, the phrase evolved into a fixed idiom used to ridicule absurd, unrealistic ambitions.
💡 Example Usage
他不肯努力工作，却整天想着发大财，真是痴心妄想。
He refuses to work hard, yet spends his days dreaming of striking it rich—it is pure wishful thinking.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 痴心妄想
- Pinyin: chī xīn wàng xiǎng
- Literal Translation: foolish heart, vain thoughts
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4