📖 Meaning
Describes someone who is dashing, unrestrained, and free from convention, carrying themselves with elegance and bold ease. The word 倜傥 conveys a handsome, unconventional air, while 羁 (a horse's halter) symbolizes the bonds and constraints such a person refuses to accept.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom appears in the Book of Jin (晋书), in the biography of Yuan Dan (袁耽), whose courtesy name was Yandao. From a young age he displayed remarkable talent and an unbridled, free-spirited nature, and he was highly regarded by the scholarly community of his day. Compiled during the Tang dynasty, the Book of Jin records figures of the Jin dynasty (3rd–5th century), and this description of Yuan Dan became the classical source for praising a person's unrestrained and dashing character.
💡 Example Usage
他生性倜傥不羁，从不被世俗规矩束缚。
By nature he was dashing and unrestrained, never bound by the conventions of the world.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 倜傥不羁
- Pinyin: tì tǎng bù jī
- Literal Translation: free-spirited, not, tethered
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4