📖 Meaning
Describes a lifestyle that is wildly extravagant and morally dissolute. It conveys someone who indulges in luxury and sensual pleasures without restraint. The phrase is a variant of the more common form 骄奢淫逸.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase draws on classical Chinese moral discourse warning rulers and nobility against decadence. Each character denotes a vice: 骄 (arrogance), 奢 (extravagance), 淫 (licentiousness), and 佚 (indolence). Such phrasing appears in early historiographical and philosophical texts that lamented the corruption of fallen dynasties. It became a stock condemnation of courtly excess throughout imperial Chinese literature.
💡 Example Usage
他继承家业后骄奢淫佚，不出几年便把祖产挥霍殆尽。
After inheriting the family business, he lived in arrogant extravagance and dissipation, squandering the entire estate within a few years.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 骄奢淫佚
- Pinyin: jiāo shē yín yì
- Literal Translation: arrogant, extravagant, licentious, idle
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4