📖 Meaning
To shun harm and pursue advantage. It describes the pragmatic human tendency to steer away from danger while seeking what is beneficial. The idiom encapsulates a rational, cost-benefit approach to decision-making.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom reflects the utilitarian strain of classical Chinese philosophy found across Legalist and Daoist writings. It is closely related to the more widely attested expression 趋利避害, which appears in texts such as the Han Feizi and Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian. Sages and strategists frequently counseled rulers to weigh costs and benefits, advising that a wise person naturally gravitates away from peril and toward profit. No single definitive textual source is attributed to this exact four-character formulation; it functions as a general philosophical maxim.
💡 Example Usage
商人违害就利，将资金从亏损行业转向新兴市场。
The merchant avoided harm and pursued benefit, shifting capital from a loss-making industry into an emerging market.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 违害就利
- Pinyin: wéi hài jiù lì
- Literal Translation: avoid, harm, approach, benefit
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4