📖 Meaning
Describes a scene of brilliant, colorful splendor, as if flowers were gathered into clusters and brocade folded together. It can also characterize writing that is ornate and richly adorned with rhetorical flourish.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom traces back to the Song Dynasty Buddhist text "Jingde Chuandeng Lu" (Record of the Transmission of the Lamp), compiled by the monk Shi Daoyuan, in Volume 17. In the original Chan dialogue, a master cautions that without genuine spiritual realization, even one who can "gather flowers and cluster brocade"—producing dazzlingly elaborate rhetoric—finds it of no use. The phrase thus began as a critique of superficial eloquence in the context of Zen practice. Over the centuries its usage broadened, and it came to describe any scene of vivid, multicolored splendor as well as ornate literary style.
💡 Example Usage
新春游园会上的花展布置得花团锦簇，引来众多游客驻足观赏。
The flower exhibition at the spring garden fair was arranged in such brilliant, colorful splendor that it drew many visitors to stop and admire it.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 花团锦簇
- Pinyin: huā tuán jǐn cù
- Literal Translation: flowers, clusters, brocade, gathered
- Category: Variety
- Characters: 4