📖 Meaning
Repeatedly educated or warned yet still refusing to correct one's mistakes. It describes someone who remains stubbornly unrepentant despite being corrected many times. The term often carries a condemnatory tone toward habitual offenders.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from Mao Zedong's 1956 speech "On the Ten Major Relationships" (《论十大关系》). In discussing how to handle people who make mistakes, Mao observed that apart from a very small minority who persist in their errors and remain uncorrected despite repeated education, the majority can reform. The phrase was later codified as a standard expression for those who refuse to mend their ways after being admonished repeatedly. It is now commonly used in legal, disciplinary, and educational contexts to describe recidivism.
💡 Example Usage
他屡教不改，最终被公司开除了。
He refused to mend his ways despite repeated warnings and was ultimately fired by the company.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 屡教不改
- Pinyin: lǚ jiàn bù gǎi
- Literal Translation: repeatedly, teach, not, change
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4