📖 Meaning
A fixed rule or established pattern. It refers to a set principle or regular law that things follow. It can also describe a decision or plan that one has firmly made up one's mind about.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom comes from the poem 'New Road Song' (新路歌) by the modern poet Guo Xiaochuan (郭小川), in which he wrote that the development of history has its own laws of metabolism. The phrase originally conveyed the idea that historical change follows inherent, fixed patterns of renewal and replacement. Over time, it broadened to denote any established rule or settled plan.
💡 Example Usage
这项工程的进度安排有一定之规，不能随意更改。
The schedule for this project follows a fixed plan and cannot be changed at will.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 一定之规
- Pinyin: yī dìng zhī guī
- Literal Translation: certain, fixed, of, rule
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4