📖 Meaning
This idiom describes a person of outstanding, upright, and open-hearted character, one who stands apart from the ordinary crowd. It portrays someone whose integrity and nobility are as conspicuous as a towering, craggy peak.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from Chapter One of Wu Jingzi's Qing-dynasty novel Rulin Waishi (The Scholars), where the narrator remarks that in the last years of the Yuan dynasty there once appeared a man of qin qi lei luo character. The man referred to is Wang Mian, a painter and poet who lived in a village in Zhuji County and refused to serve the corrupt regime, choosing instead a life of principled seclusion. The saying is also recorded in the variant form qin qi li luo (嵚崎历落).
💡 Example Usage
他一生淡泊名利，品格嵚崎磊落，深为后人所敬仰。
He remained indifferent to fame and wealth all his life, and his outstanding, upright character won him the lasting respect of later generations.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 嵚崎磊落
- Pinyin: qīn qí lěi luò
- Literal Translation: lofty and steep, open and upright
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4