📖 Meaning
This idiom describes wearing mourning attire in traditional Chinese funeral customs. When an elder passed away, the younger generation would wear coarse hemp garments and white cloth headbands as a visible sign of filial piety and grief. It evokes the image of mourners with long, trailing funeral garments.
📜 Origin Story
There is no single recorded literary source for this idiom. It originates from ancient Chinese funeral rites, where the degree of mourning attire was strictly regulated by kinship proximity to the deceased. The coarsest hemp cloth was reserved for the closest relatives, symbolizing raw grief and the stripping away of comfort. This practice was formalized in the 'Book of Rites' (礼记) and persisted through imperial China as a core expression of filial duty.
💡 Example Usage
他拖麻拽布，在灵前哭得死去活来。
He wore the coarse hemp mourning clothes and wept inconsolably before the spirit tablet.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 拖麻拽布
- Pinyin: tuō má zhuài bù
- Literal Translation: drag, hemp, pull, cloth
- Category: Status
- Characters: 4