📖 Meaning
Being overly eager to accomplish tasks and achieve quick results. It describes someone who rushes toward success without adequate patience or thoroughness. The term carries a slightly critical tone toward hasty ambition.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from Lu Xun's essay collection 'Nanqiang Beidiao Ji' (Mixed Accents Collection), specifically in the piece 'In Memory of the Forgotten' written during the Republican era. Lu Xun used it to describe a young woman whom he found somewhat distant and unfamiliar, suspecting she was a bit romantic and 'eager for quick success.' The expression has since become a literary way to characterize those who seek rapid achievements without due patience.
💡 Example Usage
做学问切忌急于事功，须沉下心来日积月累。
In pursuing scholarship, one must avoid being eager for quick success and instead settle down to accumulate knowledge day by day.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 急于事功
- Pinyin: jí yú shì gōng
- Literal Translation: impatient for, affairs, achievement
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4