📖 Meaning
Describes someone talking incessantly and with animated agitation, arguing passionately about right and wrong. The vivid image evokes lips flapping open and a mustache bristling as one pontificates at length.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from Yan Fu's (严复) late Qing essay '论中国分党' (On Chinese Factions). Yan Fu, a renowned reformist translator, criticized ultra-conservative scholars who, despite their esteemed reputations, refused to genuinely engage with Western knowledge. When confronted with Western science and technology, these conservatives would superficially cite classical texts to justify their positions, arguing endlessly without shame. The phrase paints a vivid portrait of such a person—lips flapping and mustache standing—as they pontificate.
💡 Example Usage
他在会上张唇植髭，滔滔不绝地反驳新方案，却提不出半点建设性意见。
At the meeting, he talked on and on with animated agitation, rebutting the new proposal yet unable to offer a single constructive suggestion.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 张唇植髭
- Pinyin: zhāng chún zhí zī
- Literal Translation: open lips, raise mustache
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4