📖 Meaning
斤斤 originally describes keen, clear-sighted observation, and by extension came to mean trivial and petty matters. The idiom describes someone who fusses excessively over unimportant or inconsequential things, haggling over every trifle at the expense of the bigger picture.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom derives from the poem 'Zhi Jing' (Holding Fast to Reverence) in the Zhou Hymns section of the Book of Songs (Shijing), a eulogy composed during the Western Zhou dynasty to honor the wise reign of Kings Cheng and Kang. The line reads: 'From the time of Cheng and Kang, they held sway over all four quarters, and their intelligence was keen (斤斤其明).' Here 斤斤 describes their clear and penetrating wisdom. Over the centuries the term shifted in sense from 'clear-sighted' to 'petty and trivial', eventually giving rise to the modern meaning of haggling over insignificant details.
💡 Example Usage
做人要大度一点，不必对小事斤斤计较。
One should be magnanimous in life and not fuss over trifles.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 斤斤计较
- Pinyin: jīn jīn jì jiào
- Literal Translation: attentive to minutiae, attentive to minutiae, calculate, contend
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4