📖 Meaning
To deliberately devote great effort and careful thought to planning and managing something. It describes putting in intentional, painstaking effort to arrange or accomplish a task rather than acting casually.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Qing dynasty work 'Jin Shi Shuo' (今世说) by Wang Zhuo, in the chapter 'Gui Zhen' (规箴, Words of Admonition). In the original passage, Wang Zhuo remarks that certain matters demand soaring imagination ('霞思云想') and deliberate, painstaking management ('刻意经营'), questioning why one would carelessly put pen to paper and let mediocre work circulate among people. The idiom thus arose as a call to apply serious, thoughtful effort rather than slipshod production.
💡 Example Usage
这部小说是作者刻意经营多年的心血之作。
This novel is the author's life's work, deliberately crafted over many years.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 刻意经营
- Pinyin: kè yì jīng yíng
- Literal Translation: deliberately, exert, mind, manage, operate
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4