📖 Meaning
Refers to elderly former officials and young people who remain loyal to a fallen dynasty after a regime change. Broadly, it describes people who stubbornly cling to the past and refuse to accept new ideas or progress.
📜 Origin Story
The term combines '遗老' (leftover elders), traditionally referring to former officials of an overthrown dynasty, and '遗少' (leftover youth), young people who nostalgically cling to the old order. The phrase appears in Lu Xun's essay collection '南腔北调集' (Mixed Dialects), in the piece '作文秘诀' (Secrets of Writing), where he mocks how certain literary pretensions preserved the authority of classical anthologies in the minds of those still attached to the old ways. Over time it became a label for reactionaries and nostalgists unwilling to move forward.
💡 Example Usage
这些遗老遗少至今仍不肯接受新事物。
These holdovers from the old era still refuse to accept anything new.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 遗老遗少
- Pinyin: yí lǎo yí shào
- Literal Translation: remnant old, remnant young
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4