📖 Meaning
The moral tone and social customs of society are declining day by day. It is used to lament that public morals and social behavior are deteriorating over time. Often expressed by older generations when observing what they perceive as a loss of traditional values.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is recorded in the modern novel 《苦斗》 by the twentieth-century writer 欧阳山 (Ouyang Shan), where a character laments that 'people's hearts differ as much as their faces' and remarks that 'to say the morals of the world are declining day by day' captures the sentiment. Although its literary attestation is relatively modern, the concern about moral decline is a perennial theme in Chinese thought, echoed in Confucian and later writings. The phrase combines 世风 (social customs and morals) with 日下 (going down day by day) to form a vivid image of gradual deterioration.
💡 Example Usage
如今诈骗频发，真让人感叹世风日下。
With fraud so rampant these days, one cannot help but lament the declining morals of society.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 世风日下
- Pinyin: shì fēng rì xià
- Literal Translation: world, customs, day, down
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4