📖 Meaning
A metaphor for a small surviving fragment of something precious and rare. It refers to treasured remnants or traces of what was once whole and magnificent, like scattered glimmers of light or a single feather from a mythical creature.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is a variant of the more common 吉光片羽 (jí guāng piàn yǔ). In ancient Chinese mythology, 吉光 was a divine beast resembling a horse, whose fur coat was said to be impervious to cold and water. A single feather (片羽) or fragment of its coat was considered a priceless treasure. The variant 零光片羽 uses 零 (scattered, fragmentary) to emphasize the dispersed and incomplete nature of these precious remnants, evoking the image of scattered rays of light.
💡 Example Usage
书中收录的零光片羽，皆是作者毕生心血的结晶。
The scattered fragments collected in this book are the crystallization of the author's lifelong dedication.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 零光片羽
- Pinyin: líng guāng piàn yǔ
- Literal Translation: scattered, light, fragment, feather
- Category: Quality
- Characters: 4