📖 Meaning
This idiom describes someone who neglects their own affairs to busy themselves with other people's matters. It criticizes the attitude of making heavy demands on others while taking little responsibility for oneself. The phrase originates from an agricultural metaphor about abandoning one's own field to cultivate another's.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Mencius (孟子), chapter 'Jin Xin II' (尽心下), composed during the Warring States period by Mencius and his disciples. Mencius compared a common human failing to a farmer who abandons his own field to weed someone else's field. He observed that such people demand much of others yet take on little personal responsibility. Over time this passage was condensed into the four-character idiom 舍己芸人, used to criticize those who focus on others' faults while neglecting self-cultivation.
💡 Example Usage
管理者若舍己芸人，只苛责下属而不反省自身，团队必然涣散。
If a manager neglects self-reflection and instead busies himself criticizing subordinates, the team will inevitably fall apart.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 舍己芸人
- Pinyin: shě jǐ yún rén
- Literal Translation: abandon, oneself, weed, others'
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4