📖 Meaning
This idiom describes a person who disregards all sense of shame and decency, relentlessly scheming and currying favor everywhere to gain personal advantage. It portrays someone driven entirely by self-interest, abandoning moral principles in the pursuit of material gain or social climbing.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the essay "The Present and the Future" (《现在与未来》) by Li Dazhao (李大钊), a pioneering Chinese Marxist thinker and co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party. In the essay, Li sharply criticizes fashionable politicians of his era who busied themselves with shameless scheming day in and day out, all merely to prepare for their future material comforts. The expression captures his deep disdain for those who abandon integrity in the relentless pursuit of personal gain. It is closely related to the older and more common idiom 蝇营狗苟, which carries the same imagery of flies buzzing about and dogs scrounging.
💡 Example Usage
那些政客营营苟苟，不过是为了个人利益罢了。
Those politicians scheme and curry favor shamelessly, all for nothing but personal gain.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 营营苟苟
- Pinyin: yíng yíng gǒu gǒu
- Literal Translation: buzzing about seeking, seeking shamelessly
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4