📖 Meaning
A metaphor for baring one's innermost heart to demonstrate utter sincerity and loyalty. The imagery evokes cutting open one's own organs, symbolizing total openness of feeling with nothing held back. It is often used to describe someone who is completely devoted and frank in serving a ruler, cause, or friend.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from a memorial titled 'Qi Jin Shu' (Petition for Advancement) by the Ming dynasty scholar Yuan Zongdao (1568–1610), elder brother of the renowned Yuan brothers of the Gong'an school. In the passage, Yuan argues that a true gentleman should accept the emperor's judgments with grace, regardless of whether they align with his own hopes, and that anyone who does not bare his liver and gallbladder—that is, who does not lay bare his complete sincerity—is no true man. Over time the phrase came to denote the utmost frankness and devotion in offering counsel or loyalty.
💡 Example Usage
他为人坦荡，对挚友向来析肝刿胆，从无半句虚言。
He is open and upright by nature, always baring his heart to his closest friends without a single word of falsehood.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 析肝刿胆
- Pinyin: xī gān guì dǎn
- Literal Translation: dissect the liver, cut the gallbladder
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4