📖 Meaning
To repeatedly answer with deferential 'yes, yes,' showing submission or obedience. It describes someone who meekly and continuously agrees without any objection or dissent. The phrase conveys a tone of compliant, perhaps excessively servile, assent.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase traces to the Records of the Grand Historian (史记), in the chapter on the Hereditary House of Zhao. When Zhao Jianzi (赵简子) lamented the loss of his loyal minister Zhou She (周舍), he recalled that his court was now filled with people who only replied with deferential agreement — 'we only hear yes-yes, but no longer hear Zhou She's blunt remonstrance.' Zhou She had been known for speaking frankly and criticizing the ruler's faults, unlike the sycophantic courtiers who surrounded the king after his death. The story contrasts honest counsel with servile compliance, warning rulers against surrounding themselves with yes-men. The idiom later appears in Qing dynasty literature such as Wu Jingzi's The Scholars (儒林外史).
💡 Example Usage
他唯唯连声地答应着，不敢有半句反驳。
He answered with a string of meek 'yes, yes' replies, not daring to voice the slightest objection.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 唯唯连声
- Pinyin: wěi wěi lián shēng
- Literal Translation: yes-yes, continuous-voice
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4