📖 Meaning
To compete in showing off beauty and fragrance. It describes flowers or women vying with one another to display their splendor and charm.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase originates from the Qing Dynasty folk song collection Baixue Yiyin (白雪遗音), specifically in the piece 'Yu Qingting · You An' (玉蜻蜓·游庵). The original line reads, 'Competing in beauty and fragrance are only the powder and paint, when in those years both elder and younger admired Lord Qiao.' The idiom draws on the imagery of flowers blossoming together, each striving to outshine the others in color and scent, and was later extended to describe people—especially women—contending in attractiveness.
💡 Example Usage
春日百花斗艳争芳，将整座园林装点得如诗如画。
In spring, a hundred flowers compete in beauty and fragrance, adorning the entire garden like a painting come to life.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 斗艳争芳
- Pinyin: dòu yàn zhēng fāng
- Literal Translation: compete, beauty, vie for, fragrance
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4