📖 Meaning
To consider what is distant in time as precious and what is near as worthless. It describes the tendency to revere the remote past while undervaluing the present. The phrase is equivalent to the idiom 贵远贱近.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from Hu Zi's Tiaoxi Yuyin Conghua (Qianji), where he quotes Cai Kuanfu's Shihua from the Song dynasty. Cai Kuanfu discussed the language of Chu, noting that exclamatory words like 'qiang' and 'jian', and the common particle 'xie', became celebrated literary expressions after Qu Yuan and Song Yu employed them. However, he observed that people's ordinary inclination is to prize the distant and disparage the near, reflecting a common human bias.
💡 Example Usage
学术研究中应避免贵远鄙近的倾向，不可轻视当代学者的贡献。
In academic research, one should avoid the tendency to revere the distant and disparage the near, and not undervalue the contributions of contemporary scholars.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 贵远鄙近
- Pinyin: guì yuǎn bǐ jìn
- Literal Translation: value, distant, despise, near
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4