📖 Meaning
Refers to fragmentary bits of writing—scattered words and isolated sentences. It describes incomplete or piecemeal textual materials, equivalent to the idiom 片言只字.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the Tang dynasty poet and critic Sikong Tu (司空图), in his preface titled 'Preface to Inscribing the Collected Works of Liu Zongyuan' (题《柳柳州集》序). In it he laments that later scholars are narrow and shallow: even when facing mere fragments of writing that they cannot yet distinguish or understand, they already glare with hostility and slander one another. The expression thus arose as a critique of superficial scholarship that dismisses even scraps of text.
💡 Example Usage
他在研究古典文献时，连片词只句都不轻易放过，务求参透每一处的真意。
When studying classical texts, he would not overlook even the smallest fragment of writing, determined to grasp the true meaning in every part.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 片词只句
- Pinyin: piàn cí zhī jù
- Literal Translation: piece, word, only, sentence
- Category: Knowledge
- Characters: 4