📖 Meaning
Precious tableware and lavish meals. By extension, it refers to special favor or privileged treatment bestowed upon someone. The imagery conveys being unusually well-provisioned and esteemed.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom evokes the image of rich meat dishes served on valuable copper plates, a scene of luxurious dining in ancient China. Copper vessels were costly and meat was a luxury reserved for the privileged, so such a setting signaled extraordinary generosity from a patron. The phrase thus came to symbolize not only lavish meals but also the special favor or patronage of someone powerful. Unlike many chengyu, it lacks a single documented origin story tied to a specific historical text or figure. It is used to describe someone receiving exceptional, favored treatment.
💡 Example Usage
他深受恩宠，日日铜盘重肉，旁人无不艳羡。
He was so highly favored that he enjoyed lavish meals every day, to the envy of all around him.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 铜盘重肉
- Pinyin: tóng pán zhòng ròu
- Literal Translation: copper plate, heavy meat
- Category: Status
- Characters: 4