📖 Meaning
Describes a woman of extraordinary beauty, with the elegance of a celestial fairy and a countenance of surpassing refinement. The character 佚 (yì) is a classical variant of 逸, conveying a sense of effortless, transcendent charm. It is a high literary compliment reserved for exceptional female beauty.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom has no definitively documented single source in classical Chinese literature. It draws on the enduring Daoist and literary tradition of comparing beautiful women to celestial immortals (仙子), a motif found throughout Chinese poetry and prose from the Han dynasty onward. The phrase likely emerged from literary circles during the Tang or Song dynasties, when florid descriptions of female beauty were in vogue, though its precise first usage remains unattributed.
💡 Example Usage
画中女子仙姿佚貌，仿佛不食人间烟火。
The woman in the painting possessed an immortal grace and transcendent beauty, as if she had never partaken of mortal sustenance.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 仙姿佚貌
- Pinyin: xiān zī yì mào
- Literal Translation: immortal, grace, transcendent, countenance
- Category: Quality
- Characters: 4