📖 Meaning
To wrap something in multiple layers and carefully store it away, indicating that one treasures and cherishes the item greatly. It describes the act of preserving something with the utmost care and reverence, as if it were an invaluable treasure.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from a story recorded in the lost ancient text 'Kanzi,' preserved in the 'Taiping Yulan' (Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era), compiled by Li Fang during the Northern Song dynasty. The tale tells of a foolish man from the state of Song who found a worthless stone from the state of Yan near Wutai and treasured it as a great treasure. When a visitor from the state of Zhou came to see it, the host dressed in formal attire to reveal the treasure, which was stored in ten layers of ornate boxes and wrapped in ten layers of fine red silk. The phrase describing these ten layers of boxes and ten wrappings of silk gave rise to the idiom, originally conveying the practice of carefully wrapping and treasuring items before storage.
💡 Example Usage
这件祖传的玉器被他什袭而藏，从不轻易示人。
He wrapped the heirloom jade in many layers and stored it away carefully, never showing it to anyone lightly.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 什袭而藏
- Pinyin: shí xī ér cáng
- Literal Translation: many, layers, and then, store
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4