📖 Meaning
Like flies buzzing restlessly about and rats peering around in search of openings. A metaphor for someone who ingratiates and schemes everywhere for personal gain, behaving in a greedy and shameless manner.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Ming dynasty writer Wu Cheng'en, in his preface 'He Xue Bo Wei Qi Tao Shi Ying Jiang Xu' congratulating a scholar-official. In the text, Wu Cheng'en lamented the decline of academic integrity, describing how people schemed and plotted in countless ways—buzzing about like flies and peeping like rats, chasing profit like a lurking crossbow-fish. He compared such base conduct to the haggling of merchants in the marketplace, sorrowing that it had now infiltrated the schools meant for learning.
💡 Example Usage
他蝇营鼠窥，到处巴结权贵，最终被人识破了真面目。
He buzzed about and snooped around, currying favor with the powerful everywhere, until his true face was finally exposed.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 蝇营鼠窥
- Pinyin: yíng yíng shǔ kuī
- Literal Translation: fly, buzz about, rat, peep
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4