📖 Meaning
Literally meaning 'skilled hands bring back spring,' this idiom describes a doctor whose medical skills are so superb that they can cure terminally ill patients and bring them back from the brink of death. It is used as high praise for a physician's exceptional medical expertise.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Qing dynasty novel '官场现形记' (The Bureaucrats) by Li Baojia, where it appears as one of many complimentary plaques hung outside a medicine shop. Alongside phrases like '功同良相' and '扁鹊复生,' the inscription '妙手回春' was offered by grateful patients to honor a doctor's life-saving abilities. The expression compares a great physician's healing power to the revival of spring, symbolizing renewal of life. It has since become one of the most common honorific phrases used in traditional Chinese medicine.
💡 Example Usage
这位老中医妙手回春，治好了许多疑难杂症。
This veteran traditional Chinese medicine doctor works miracles, curing many difficult and complex illnesses.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 妙手回春
- Pinyin: miào shǒu huí chūn
- Literal Translation: skilled hand, return spring
- Category: Skill
- Characters: 4