📖 Meaning
To leave a malignant sore untreated is to invite future disaster. Metaphorically, it describes tolerating or covering up evil deeds or harmful elements, which will inevitably lead to severe consequences later. It is a warning against the shortsightedness of appeasing wrongdoers.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from a letter written by Feng Yan, an Eastern Han dynasty scholar-official, to his wife's younger brother Ren Wuda, preserved in the 'Book of the Later Han' with annotations by Li Xian. In the letter, Feng Yan wrote, 'Nurturing a carbuncle and letting the abscess grow only brings disaster upon oneself.' He used this medical metaphor to criticize the folly of ignoring growing problems within one's household. The phrase later became a political and moral proverb warning against the perils of tolerating corruption and malfeasance.
💡 Example Usage
对腐败行为宽容就是对人民犯罪，养痈遗患，终将酿成大祸。
Tolerating corruption is a crime against the people — to nurture a carbuncle and leave a calamity will ultimately lead to disaster.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 养痈遗患
- Pinyin: yǎng yōng yí huàn
- Literal Translation: nurture, carbuncle, leave behind, calamity
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4