📖 Meaning
The mind is unsettled and restless, like a banner fluttering and swaying in the wind with nowhere to settle. It describes emotions rising and falling so strongly that one cannot maintain composure or self-control.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the Records of the Grand Historian (《史记》), in the biography of Su Qin (苏秦列传), a prominent political strategist of the Warring States period. Su Qin, in persuading King Zhao of Chu, compared the restless, anxious heart to a banner hanging aloft and swaying in the wind with no fixed place to rest. The original line reads: 心摇摇如县旌，而无所终薄 (The heart sways like a hanging banner, with nothing at last to cling to). This vivid image of an unsettled, drifting heart was later condensed into the idiom 心旌摇曳 to describe emotional agitation and loss of self-control.
💡 Example Usage
眉翠含颦，靥红展笑，一张小嘴，恰似新破的榴实，不觉看得心旌摇曳起来。
Her brows arched in a frown, her cheeks flushed into a smile, and her small mouth resembled a freshly split pomegranate — he could not help feeling his heart flutter with agitation.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 心旌摇曳
- Pinyin: xīn jīng yáo yè
- Literal Translation: heart, banner, sway, flutter
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4