📖 Meaning
Though the fire burns out, the firewood is passed on. A metaphor for ideas, scholarship, and skills being transmitted from one generation to the next. It emphasizes continuity of tradition even when individual carriers are gone.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Ming dynasty play 'Yu'er Fo' (The Fish Buddha) by Yu Shan Jushi. In its fourth act, the text discusses cutting through attachments with fierce determination, cautioning that without fully shattering emptiness one remains too soft, concluding that 'when the fire is spent, the firewood is still passed on.' The image evokes a dying fire whose embers and fuel nonetheless seed the next blaze.
💡 Example Usage
这门手艺火尽薪传，至今已有数百年历史。
This craft has been passed down from generation to generation and now has a history of several centuries.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 火尽薪传
- Pinyin: huǒ jìn xīn chuán
- Literal Translation: fire exhausted, firewood passed down
- Category: Knowledge
- Characters: 4