📖 Meaning
To study and investigate the profound and subtle aspects of principles and phenomena. It describes a deep, meticulous approach to scholarship that penetrates the finest details of a subject. The phrase is synonymous with the idiom 研精阐微.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the writings of the Qing dynasty diplomat and scholar Xue Fucheng (薛福成), specifically in his 'Diary of a Mission to Four Countries' (出使四国日记), dated the twenty-first day of the eleventh month of the sixteenth year of the Guangxu reign (1890). In the original passage, Xue Fucheng argues that the study of profound and subtle truths is a universal principle of the cosmos, and that one need not quibble over who first transmitted or inherited such knowledge. The idiom thus reflects a late-Qing intellectual's appreciation for rigorous, disinterested scholarship as a shared human endeavor.
💡 Example Usage
他对这门学问研精究微，终于取得了重大突破。
By delving deeply into the subtle intricacies of this field of study, he finally achieved a major breakthrough.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 研精究微
- Pinyin: yán jīng jiū wēi
- Literal Translation: research, profound, investigate, subtle
- Category: Learning
- Characters: 4