📖 Meaning
Having talent but suffering from bad fortune. It describes a capable person who cannot achieve success or recognition due to unfavorable circumstances and poor luck, never fulfilling their potential.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from a poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu titled 'To Di Mingfu Boji' (寄狄明府博济). In the poem, Du Fu writes about forty people who, like a father devoted to reading, possess great talent yet meet with no fortune, remaining stuck at the bottom of officialdom. Du Fu used these words to lament gifted individuals whose abilities were never rewarded with success due to the cruel twists of fate and circumstance.
💡 Example Usage
可惜他有才无命，考了三次科举都没中。
It is a pity that despite his talent, ill fortune plagued him — he failed the imperial examinations three times.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 有才无命
- Pinyin: yǒu cái wú mìng
- Literal Translation: have, talent, no, fate
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4