📖 Meaning
Refers to the basic desires and instincts of human nature, specifically the need for food and drink and the attraction between men and women. It encapsulates the idea that these appetites are the most fundamental of all human wants. The phrase is used to describe innate human nature rather than cultivated behavior.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the 'Li Yun' chapter of the 'Book of Rites' (《礼记·礼运》), a foundational Confucian text compiled during the Han dynasty from earlier Zhou-era ritual records. The full passage states: 'Eating, drinking, and the relations between men and women—herein lie the greatest of human desires.' The text acknowledges that these primal appetites are universal and unavoidable aspects of human existence. Confucian scholars used this observation to argue that ritual and moral education must work with, not deny, fundamental human nature. Over time, the four-character phrase became a standalone idiom representing the irreducible core of human instinct.
💡 Example Usage
饮食男女是人之大欲，自古皆然，无需讳言。
Food, drink, and the bonds between men and women are the greatest of human desires—this has been so since ancient times and need not be taboo.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 饮食男女
- Pinyin: yǐn shí nán nǚ
- Literal Translation: drink, eat, man, woman
- Category: Philosophy
- Characters: 4