📖 Meaning
To feel so light and buoyant that one seems about to float away from the mortal world and become an immortal. It describes a sensation of effortless ease and elation, and can also characterize poetry, calligraphy, or other arts with an ethereal, gracefully flowing quality.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase traces back to the Song dynasty polymath Su Shi's celebrated prose poem 'Former Ode to the Red Cliff' (前赤壁赋), where he wrote of drifting on the river and feeling '飘飘乎遗世独立，羽化而登仙'—floating aloft, standing apart from the world, ready to sprout wings and ascend as an immortal. Later writers condensed this evocative image into the four-character idiom to convey a sense of weightless transcendence. It became widely used to describe both the dizzy pleasure of physical lightness and the ethereal charm of literary or calligraphic works.
💡 Example Usage
泡完温泉后，他全身舒畅，只觉飘飘欲仙。
After soaking in the hot spring, his whole body felt wonderfully relaxed, as if he were floating on the verge of becoming an immortal.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 飘飘欲仙
- Pinyin: piāo piāo yù xiān
- Literal Translation: floating, floating, about to, become immortal
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4