📖 Meaning
The resolve to settle down in a place and live out the rest of one's life there. It describes a person's firm intention to make a particular location their permanent home until death. The idiom conveys a sense of contentment and finality in choosing where to spend one's remaining years.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the 'Biography of Fu Long' in the Book of Song (宋书), compiled by Shen Yue of the Southern Dynasties Liang period. It records that during the early Yixi era of the Eastern Jin, Fu Long, at age forty, first served as an official under General Meng Chang. After being dismissed, he took up a military advisory post in Kuaiji. His family home was in Shangyu, and upon returning east, he formed the resolve to settle there permanently for the rest of his days. The phrase was later famously applied to the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi in the Book of Jin, who, disliking life in the capital, resolved to settle in the Zhejiang region upon first crossing the river.
💡 Example Usage
他厌倦漂泊，回到故乡便有了终焉之志。
Weary of wandering, he returned to his hometown and resolved to settle there for the rest of his days.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 终焉之志
- Pinyin: zhōng yān zhī zhì
- Literal Translation: end, therein, of, aspiration
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4