📖 Meaning
When someone spits on your face, you do not wipe it off but let it dry on its own. It describes the extreme tolerance of one who endures humiliation without any resistance or retaliation, meekly accepting disgrace.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the Biography of Lou Shide in the New Book of Tang (《新唐书·娄师德传》). Lou Shide, a Tang dynasty chancellor celebrated for his forbearance, was seeing off his younger brother who was departing to govern Daizhou and advised him to be tolerant. The brother replied that if someone spat on his face, he would simply wipe it clean. Lou Shide corrected him, saying that wiping it off would only provoke the offender's anger, and that one should instead let the spit dry on its own. The story illustrates the highest degree of patience in enduring humiliation.
💡 Example Usage
面对旁人的羞辱，他竟能唾面自干，从不计较。
Facing others' insults, he could simply let the spittle dry on his face and never took offense.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 唾面自干
- Pinyin: tuò miàn zì gān
- Literal Translation: spit, face, self, dry
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4