📖 Meaning
To remain completely untouched, exactly as things were, without the slightest change. It describes an object, offer, or situation that has been left intact, with nothing added, removed, or altered. It is often used of gifts, documents, or arrangements returned or preserved in their original condition.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase is recorded in 《太平天国故事歌谣选》 (Stories and Ballads of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom), in the tale titled 《竹签的来历》 (The Origin of the Bamboo Stake). Set during the Taiping era (mid-19th century), the story recounts a festival feast whose dishes and wine were laid out but then left entirely untouched, a detail that puzzled everyone present. The expression spread from such folk narratives into general written use, and it was later quoted by Mao Zedong in a 1955 speech to the Party's National Representative Conference as a vivid image of problems left unresolved.
💡 Example Usage
我寄给他的那份礼物，他原封未动地退了回来。
The gift I sent him came back completely untouched, just as I had packed it.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 原封未动
- Pinyin: yuán fēng wèi dòng
- Literal Translation: original, seal, not, move
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4