📖 Meaning
To carefully research a subject and think about it deeply and thoroughly. It describes someone devoting meticulous attention and profound contemplation to study or scholarship, leaving no detail unexamined.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom comes from the Tang dynasty scholar Kong Yingda's preface to his commentary on the 'Book of Documents' (Shangshu). After receiving an imperial decree to write commentaries on the fifty-nine chapters, Kong Yingda devoted himself to meticulous study and deep contemplation, broadly consulting the classics and drawing upon the insights of various thinkers to establish authoritative interpretations. The phrase captures the rigorous scholarly spirit characteristic of Tang-era Confucian exegesis.
💡 Example Usage
他研精覃思十余年，终于在经学领域自成一家。
After more than ten years of meticulous research and deep contemplation, he finally established his own school of thought in classical studies.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 研精覃思
- Pinyin: yán jīng tán sī
- Literal Translation: research, refine, deeply, think
- Category: Learning
- Characters: 4