📖 Meaning
To clap one's hands and beat time to music. It describes either keeping rhythm with a melody by clapping, or clapping to express strong admiration and praise for a performance, speech, or work.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom has no single definitive classical source; it is a compound of two older descriptive actions, 抚掌 (clapping the hands) and 击节 (beating time to music), both of which appear independently in ancient Chinese texts about musical and literary appreciation. Beating time to a song is a motif in early poetry and prose, where listeners tap or clap to follow a melody. Later Ming and Qing vernacular novels and stories frequently pair the two actions to show a listener so moved by a performance that they clap and keep time while voicing praise. Over time the phrase shifted from a literal musical gesture to a general expression of enthusiastic approval.
💡 Example Usage
听完这首曲子，他抚掌击节，连声叫好。
After hearing the piece, he clapped along to the rhythm and praised it again and again.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 抚掌击节
- Pinyin: fǔ zhǎng jī jié
- Literal Translation: clap hands, beat time
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4