📖 Meaning
To worry about both the distant future and the immediate present. It describes a state of excessive and all-encompassing anxiety, where one frets over everything regardless of when it might happen.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from Chapter 56 of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' (红楼梦), the classic Qing Dynasty novel by Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹). In the story, a character is praised for being neither servile nor overbearing while displaying a thorough concern for both long-term and short-term matters. The phrase originally carried a somewhat positive connotation of being responsibly thorough, but over time it evolved to describe excessive, unproductive worrying.
💡 Example Usage
他整天远愁近虑，连觉都睡不好。
He spends all day worrying about everything under the sun, so much so that he can barely sleep.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 远愁近虑
- Pinyin: yuǎn chóu jìn lǜ
- Literal Translation: distant, worry, near, anxiety
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4