📖 Meaning
Refers to the customs and exemplary forms or manners left behind by earlier generations. It describes cultural practices, conventions, or models that survive as faint vestiges of a past era. The idiom is used to acknowledge that something still echoes an older tradition.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from 'Touhu Xinge' (New Standards for the Pitch-pot Game) by Sima Guang, the renowned Northern Song dynasty statesman and historian. In this work on the traditional pitch-pot game, Sima Guang laments that while the ancient apparatus of the game and the accompanying etiquette of bowing and yielding have been lost in his own time, their faint traces (遗风余象) can still be glimpsed. From this, the phrase came to denote the customs and models bequeathed by preceding generations.
💡 Example Usage
这座古村的节庆习俗里，仍能窥见前人的遗风余象。
In the festive customs of this ancient village, one can still catch a glimpse of the traditions left behind by earlier generations.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 遗风余象
- Pinyin: yí fēng yú xiàng
- Literal Translation: left behind, custom, remaining, form
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4