📖 Meaning
To deal with someone in a false, perfunctory manner, pretending to be agreeable while lacking genuine sincerity. It describes going through the motions of being friendly or cooperative without real commitment. Often used of social politeness that masks true feelings.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the Zhuangzi (《庄子·应帝王》), a foundational Daoist text of the Warring States period. In the story, the physiognomizer Ji Xian (季咸) is brought by Liezi (列子) to judge his teacher Huzi (壶子). When Huzi shows a shifting, ungraspable countenance described as 'not yet emerged from my root,' he responds to Ji Xian with empty, vacillating compliance — '虚而委蛇.' Unable to read him, Ji Xian flees in terror. Over time the phrase came to mean feigning politeness without genuine sincerity.
💡 Example Usage
他心里早就不同意，只是当面虚与委蛇，敷衍几句便走了。
He had disagreed in his heart all along, but merely made a show of being agreeable, said a few perfunctory words, and left.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 虚与委蛇
- Pinyin: xū yǔ wēi yí
- Literal Translation: false, with, compliant, yielding
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4