📖 Meaning
To consider oneself both supremely wise and heroic. It describes someone who is arrogant and overestimates their own abilities, acting with reckless self-conceit. The phrase conveys a sense of presumptuous self-aggrandizement.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase appears in the third volume of A General History of China (《中国通史》), co-authored by the modern historians Fan Wenlan (范文澜) and Cai Meibiao (蔡美彪) and others. In the first chapter of that volume, the authors describe a historical figure who was extremely arrogant and greedy, believing that everything he did was right and that everything he received was never enough. As a consequence, he considered himself both wise and heroic, acting willfully and recklessly. The expression thus characterizes a person blinded by self-importance into ignoring all restraint.
💡 Example Usage
他仗着一点小功劳就予智予雄，目中无人。
Relying on a minor achievement, he grew arrogant and conceited, looking down on everyone around him.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 予智予雄
- Pinyin: yú zhì yú xióng
- Literal Translation: I, wise, I, heroic
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4