📖 Meaning
This idiom describes a method of learning where one approaches study with unhurried ease, seeking understanding gradually and savoring the material until deeply absorbed. It conveys the idea of studying at a relaxed pace so that knowledge is fully digested rather than rushed. The emphasis is on patient, thorough immersion in scholarship.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the preface to Du Yu's annotated edition of the Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋左传集解序), written during the Jin Dynasty. Du Yu described guiding learners gently and patiently, letting them seek answers on their own, and feeding them knowledge until they naturally pursued further understanding of their own accord. Over time his phrasing was condensed into the four-character idiom, used to characterize a scholarly approach of unhurried, deeply absorptive study. The Qing Dynasty scholar Dai Mingshi later employed it in the preface to his collected works on the Four Books to advocate immersive reading of classical texts.
💡 Example Usage
读经典须优柔餍饫，方能领会其中深意。
One must study the classics with patient immersion and thorough absorption to grasp their deeper meaning.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 优柔餍饫
- Pinyin: yōu róu yàn yù
- Literal Translation: gentle, yielding, satiated, gorged
- Category: Learning
- Characters: 4