📖 Meaning
To cling to established habits and go through the motions without real effort or initiative. It describes someone who muddles along, putting in only the minimum needed to get by rather than striving to improve. The term conveys a stagnant, complacent attitude that ultimately prevents any meaningful accomplishment.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from a letter by the Southern Song scholar Lü Zuqian, titled 'Reply to Pan Shudu' (《答潘叔度》). In the letter, Lü Zuqian warns his friend against excusing one's own shortcomings with clever-sounding rationalizations. He argues that if a person continually forgives himself with such words, he will simply follow old habits and act half-heartedly, ending up unable to accomplish a single thing. The passage survives as a moral caution against complacency and self-deception.
💡 Example Usage
他做事因循苟且，多年下来毫无建树。
He drifted along and did his work perfunctorily, and after years had accomplished nothing of note.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 因循苟且
- Pinyin: yīn xún gǒu qiě
- Literal Translation: follow (the old ways), act carelessly
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4