📖 Meaning
Refers to stories, legends, and anecdotes that are little known to the general public. Most often it describes tales that are not found in official or formal historical records. The phrase carries a sense of obscure but entertaining lore passed down through private writings or oral tradition.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the Qing dynasty scholar Liu Shipei (刘师培), a prominent classical philologist and literary theorist. In his essay "论说部与文学之关系" (On the Relationship between Minor Fiction and Literature), he discussed how writers of the unofficial literary tradition preserved material neglected by orthodox historiography. He wrote that even "single words and isolated meanings, anecdotes and unrecorded tales" (单辞只义，轶事遗闻) were all committed to writing in the hope that they would be transmitted far into the future. The expression has since become a standard term for the miscellaneous, unofficial lore surrounding historical figures and events.
💡 Example Usage
这部笔记小说记载了许多关于这位诗人的轶事遗闻，读来趣味横生。
This notebook-style fiction records many little-known anecdotes about the poet, making it a delight to read.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 轶事遗闻
- Pinyin: yì shì yí wén
- Literal Translation: anecdotes, events, left-behind, tales
- Category: Knowledge
- Characters: 4