📖 Meaning
This idiom compares an unrecognized talent to a coiled dragon and a departing phoenix, both majestic yet unable to fulfill their nature. It describes a person of outstanding ability who has never found the opportunity or patronage to put their talents to use. It is a poetic image of giftedness thwarted by circumstance.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase has no single authoritative classical source and does not trace to a specific historical text. It draws on two stock images in Chinese tradition: the coiled dragon, a being of immense power held in concealment, and the phoenix, a radiant bird that forsakes a land lacking virtue. Later writers joined the two images to evoke the figure of the overlooked genius. It is now used chiefly in literary and calligraphic contexts as an elegant synonym for 怀才不遇.
💡 Example Usage
他才华横溢却多年未得重用，真可谓龙盘凤逸。
Brilliant yet overlooked for years, he truly embodied a coiled dragon and a vanished phoenix.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 龙盘凤逸
- Pinyin: lóng pán fèng yì
- Literal Translation: dragon, coils, phoenix, soars away
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4