📖 Meaning
A metaphor for an illusory and unattainable dream. It describes vain fantasies and unrealistic aspirations that can never be realized, like a beautiful dream that vanishes the moment one wakes up.
📜 Origin Story
From the Tang dynasty tale "Zhen Zhong Ji" (The Pillow) by Shen Jiji. A disappointed scholar named Lu meets a Daoist monk at an inn in Handan. The monk lends him a magic pillow, and while the innkeeper cooks yellow millet porridge, Lu dreams of an entire lifetime of glory, wealth, high office, and eventual ruin spanning decades. Upon waking, he finds the millet still not yet cooked—his whole illustrious life was but a fleeting dream, revealing the transience of worldly success.
💡 Example Usage
他费尽心机谋求的权势富贵，到头来不过是黄粱一梦。
All the power and wealth he schemed so hard for turned out to be nothing but an illusory dream in the end.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 黄粱一梦
- Pinyin: huáng liáng yī mèng
- Literal Translation: yellow, millet, one, dream
- Category: Philosophy
- Characters: 4