📖 Meaning
Refers to beautiful scenes and fine moments, and by extension the best years of one's life. The image pairs the brightest moon of autumn with the gentlest breeze of spring to evoke times of ease and pleasure. It often carries a hint that such golden days pass all too quickly.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi's famous poem 'Pipa Xing' (琵琶行), in the line '今年欢笑复明年，秋月春风等闲度' — this year brings laughter and song, and the next the same, while autumn moons and spring winds slip idly by. In the poem an aging courtesan recalls how her youth and beauty were spent amid such carefree scenes, until time wore them away. The idiom later became a stock expression for fleeting good times, and was picked up by the Ming dynasty poet Yang Shen in his lyric 'Linjiang Xian' — '白发渔樵江渚上，惯看秋月春风' — where a white-haired fisherman has watched so many of them pass that he no longer takes them to heart.
💡 Example Usage
白发渔樵江渚上，惯看秋月春风。
The white-haired fisherman on the river isle has grown used to watching autumn moons and spring winds come and go.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 秋月春风
- Pinyin: qiū yuè chūn fēng
- Literal Translation: autumn moon, spring wind
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4