📖 Meaning
Literally comparing someone to an owl spreading its wings over its own territory, this idiom means to set up one's own school of thought or faction and conspicuously flaunt it. It carries a derogatory tone, criticizing the arrogant self-promotion and clique-forming typical of literary or scholarly circles.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase is first attested in Qing dynasty poet and critic Yuan Mei's 'Suiyuan Shihua Buyi' (Supplement to the Suiyuan Poetry Talks), Volume 9. There Yuan Mei declares his dislike for the fashion of 'poetry circles and recitation societies,' arguing that such practices most likely arose from the bad habit of '鸱张门户' during the late Ming dynasty. The image is of rival literati spreading their wings like owls to mark and guard their own intellectual territory.
💡 Example Usage
此人喜好鸱张门户，整日标榜自家学问，旁人颇不以为然。
This person loved to set up his own faction and flaunt it, boasting of his own scholarship all day long, which others found quite disagreeable.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 鸱张门户
- Pinyin: chī zhāng mén hù
- Literal Translation: owl, spread, door, gate
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4