📖 Meaning
The idiom describes a garden overflowing with beautiful spring scenery, where every corner is filled with the vitality of the season. Figuratively, it depicts a thriving, prosperous, and flourishing scene, often used to praise vibrant development or a lively, healthy atmosphere.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in a poem by Tang dynasty poet Lü Congqing, collected in his work Fengxi Cungao, which describes the lovely spring scenery of a small garden. It became widely famous through the Song dynasty poet Ye Shaoweng's poem 'A Visit to a Small Garden Without Meeting the Host' (游小园不值), in which the poet, unable to enter the locked garden, writes: 'Pity the clog prints on the green moss; long I knock at the brushwood gate, but no one answers. Spring color cannot be shut inside the garden — a branch of red apricot blossoms reaches out over the wall.' This image of spring overflowing the walls, impossible to contain, gave the idiom its enduring association with unstoppable vitality and flourishing growth.
💡 Example Usage
春风一吹，园中百花盛开，真是春色满园的好时节。
When the spring breeze blows and a hundred flowers bloom across the garden, it truly is a fine season overflowing with spring colors.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 春色满园
- Pinyin: chūn sè mǎn yuán
- Literal Translation: spring, color, full, garden
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4