📖 Meaning
The more one looks up at it, the higher it appears. It expresses profound admiration and reverence for someone's virtue, knowledge, or accomplishment that seems beyond reach.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Analects (论语·子罕), recording the words of Yan Yuan, the favorite disciple of Confucius. Yan Yuan sighed in praise, saying that the more he looked up to his master's virtue, the higher it seemed, and the more he delved into it, the firmer it appeared. He marveled at how Confucius guided students step by step with culture and ritual, yet the depth of his teaching remained inexhaustible. The phrase has since been used to express deep reverence for a person of extraordinary stature.
💡 Example Usage
面对这位学术大师的深厚学养，学生们仰之弥高，心生敬仰。
Faced with the profound scholarship of this academic master, the students felt that the more they looked up to him, the higher he stood, and their hearts filled with reverence.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 仰之弥高
- Pinyin: yǎng zhī mí gāo
- Literal Translation: look up, it, even more, high
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4