📖 Meaning
This idiom describes the act of glossing over one's mistakes, which only allows those errors to persist and harden into ingrained faults. It warns that refusing to acknowledge wrongdoing causes minor mistakes to compound over time. The phrase captures the moral danger of self-deception and uncorrected error.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom does not trace to a single classical text but synthesizes two well-established concepts in Chinese moral philosophy. The phrase 饰非 (glossing over wrongs) appears in pre-Qin works such as the Zhuangzi and the Han Feizi, where it denotes the deliberate concealment of one's faults. The component 遂过, with 遂 meaning to let proceed or allow to continue, reflects teachings found in the Zuo Zhuan and other early texts warning against letting errors go unchecked. Together they express the Confucian and Legalist consensus that concealing mistakes only entrenches them further. The four-character form crystallizes this warning into a compact maxim used in later commentaries and didactic literature to criticize rulers or officials who refused to admit fault.
💡 Example Usage
他一贯饰非遂过，致使小错酿成大祸。
He consistently covered up his mistakes, allowing minor errors to snowball into a major disaster.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 饰非遂过
- Pinyin: shì fēi suí guò
- Literal Translation: cover up, wrongs, let continue, faults
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4