📖 Meaning
Literally meaning to love red while rejecting white, this idiom is a metaphor for holding prejudice or bias. It describes someone who favors one thing while unfairly opposing another based on personal preference rather than objective judgment.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase originates from the preface to 'Miscellaneous Style Poems' (杂体诗序) by Jiang Yan (江淹), a prominent poet of the Liang dynasty during the Southern Dynasties. In the preface, Jiang Yan criticizes how scholars of his era each become trapped in their own narrow preferences—praising sweetness while disparaging spiciness, loving red while rejecting white. The passage laments that such biased attitudes prevent people from appreciating the full diversity of literary and artistic expression.
💡 Example Usage
学术研究贵在客观公正，好丹非素只会让人偏执一端。
Academic research values objectivity and fairness; harboring bias and favoritism will only lead one to become entrenched in a single viewpoint.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 好丹非素
- Pinyin: hào dān fēi sù
- Literal Translation: love red, reject white
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4