📖 Meaning
Frivolous and impetuous in temperament. It describes someone who is flighty and restless, lacking the calm steadiness needed for serious pursuit. The phrase is often used to criticize a shallow approach to learning or work.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase originates from 'Zhuzi Quanshu' (《朱子全书》), a comprehensive collection of writings by the Southern Song dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi (朱熹). In his commentary on the Analects, Zhu Xi warned that a student whose disposition is flighty and restless cannot build solid, enduring knowledge — 'if one is frivolous and impetuous, how can what they have learned be firm and lasting?' The idiom thus became a caution against shallowness and haste in scholarship and self-cultivation.
💡 Example Usage
做学问切忌飞扬浮躁，唯有沉下心来才能有所成就。
In pursuing knowledge one must avoid being flighty and restless; only by settling the mind can one achieve real accomplishment.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 飞扬浮躁
- Pinyin: fēi yáng fú zào
- Literal Translation: fly, rise, floating, restless
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4