📖 Meaning
To blow apart fur to find blemishes on the skin beneath. It describes someone who deliberately nitpicks and searches for faults in others, no matter how trivial. The phrase implies an attitude of fault-finding driven by malice or unreasonable strictness.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the 'Records of the Three Kingdoms' (三国志), in the biography of Bu Zhi (步骘) in the Wu section. The text criticizes officials who would scrutinize the smallest details, blowing apart fur to seek blemishes, rather than judging matters on their merits. A later usage appears in Tang dynasty writer Feng Yan's 'Fengshi Wenjian Ji' (封氏闻见记), where he describes how examiners would nitpick candidates' answers to find reasons to fail them. Over time the phrase became a standard metaphor for deliberately finding fault where none truly exists.
💡 Example Usage
他总是吹毛求瑕，对同事的工作百般挑剔。
He is always nitpicking, finding endless faults with his colleagues' work.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 吹毛求瑕
- Pinyin: chuī máo qiú xiá
- Literal Translation: blow, hair, seek, flaw
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4