📖 Meaning
As beautiful as a flower and as precious as jade. It describes a woman of outstanding beauty and graceful appearance. The idiom likens feminine loveliness to two of nature's most prized ornaments.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase traces back to the Book of Songs (诗经), an ancient anthology from the Zhou Dynasty, specifically the poem 'Fenjurun' (汾沮洳) in the Wei Feng section. The poem praises an unnamed beauty, first comparing them to blooming flowers ('美如英') and then to flawless jade ('美如玉'). Over centuries, later writers fused these two comparisons into the four-character idiom '如花似玉' to describe women of exquisite appearance, and it became a stock phrase in vernacular fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
💡 Example Usage
她生得如花似玉，一进府便引得众人侧目。
She was as beautiful as a flower and as flawless as jade; the moment she entered the mansion, all eyes turned toward her.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 如花似玉
- Pinyin: rú huā sì yù
- Literal Translation: like, flower, resemble, jade
- Category: Quality
- Characters: 4