📖 Meaning
A wild horse without reins. It serves as a metaphor for acting freely and arbitrarily without any restraint or constraint. The image evokes uncontrolled, ungoverned behavior.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Ming Dynasty novel 'Hao Qiu Zhuan' (好逑传), attributed to the author known as 名教中人 (Mingjiao Zhongren). In the fourth chapter, it appears in a poetic couplet: '天机有碍尖还钝，野马无缰快已迟' — meaning when heavenly mechanisms are obstructed, even sharpness turns blunt, and like a wild horse without reins, even swiftness arrives too late. The phrase used the image of an unbridled wild horse to convey the futility of acting without proper direction or discipline.
💡 Example Usage
他辞职后如野马无缰，整日四处游荡，毫无约束。
After quitting his job, he was like a wild horse without reins, wandering around all day with no restraint whatsoever.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 野马无缰
- Pinyin: yě mǎ wú jiāng
- Literal Translation: wild horse, without, reins
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4