📖 Meaning
Describes someone who is free-spirited, magnanimous, and completely unconstrained by rules or conventions. It conveys an easygoing, open-minded disposition that refuses to be tied down by worldly strictures.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom appears in the Ming dynasty vernacular story collection Stories to Awaken the World (《醒世恒言》) compiled by Feng Menglong, in the tale 'Lu Taixue's Poetry and Wine Defy the Nobility'. It describes Lu Nan, a scholar from the Jiajing reign period, as a man who 'loved wine and was chivalrous, unrestrained and free-spirited, never covetous of wealth or arrogant toward others'. Lu was known for his bold literary talent and disdain for flattering the powerful, a character portrait that gave rise to this expression.
💡 Example Usage
他性格放达不羁，从不被世俗规矩束缚。
His personality is unrestrained and free-spirited, never bound by the conventions of the world.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 放达不羁
- Pinyin: fàng dá bù jī
- Literal Translation: unrestrained, broad-minded, not, bound
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4