📖 Meaning
Describes speaking in a listless, lifeless manner, as though lacking the energy or spirit to voice one's words fully. It is a variant of the idiom 有声无气. The phrase conveys exhaustion, dejection, or despair through the quality of one's speech.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom appears in the novella "The Shop of the Lin Family" (林家铺子) by the prominent modern Chinese writer Mao Dun (茅盾, 1896–1981), set against the economic turmoil of 1930s China. In Chapter 6, the shopkeeper Mr. Lin, facing financial ruin, sighs heavily and after a long pause speaks in a weak, defeated tone, murmuring that he might as well die there. The phrase captures the despair and exhaustion of a small businessman crushed by debt and social upheaval. Mao Dun used it to render the emotional collapse of ordinary people under wartime economic crisis.
💡 Example Usage
他病了好几天，说话总是有声没气的，让人听着都替他难受。
He's been sick for several days and always speaks in a weak, listless tone that makes others feel pained just listening to him.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 有声没气
- Pinyin: yǒu shēng méi qì
- Literal Translation: have, sound, no, breath
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4