📖 Meaning
Describes earnestly and repeatedly seeking out talent or a wise person with great sincerity and humility. It conveys a leader's persistent effort to recruit someone valuable, even at personal inconvenience. Today it is used whenever someone makes repeated, sincere efforts to invite or win over an expert.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the late Eastern Han Dynasty, just before the Three Kingdoms period. The warlord Liu Bei, eager to restore the Han, learned that the brilliant strategist Zhuge Liang was living in seclusion in a thatched cottage at Longzhong. Despite winter weather and the objections of his brothers, Liu Bei personally called on Zhuge Liang three times before the recluse finally agreed to meet him and lay out the famous Longzhong Plan. Deeply moved by such humility, Zhuge Liang agreed to serve Liu Bei and became his chief strategist, helping found the state of Shu Han. The story is recorded in 'Records of the Three Kingdoms' (Sanguozhi) and later dramatized in 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' (Sanguo Yanyi).
💡 Example Usage
为了请到这位顶尖工程师，公司总经理三顾茅庐，亲自飞到外地登门邀请。
To recruit this top engineer, the company's CEO visited him in person out of town three times, like Liu Bei seeking out Zhuge Liang.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 三顾茅庐
- Pinyin: sān gù máo lú
- Literal Translation: three, visit, thatched, cottage
- Category: Leadership
- Characters: 4