久假不歸

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Chinese

[edit]
(long) time; (long) duration of time
vacation; fake; false
vacation; fake; false; artificial; to borrow; if; suppose
 
not; no to go back; to return
trad. (久假不歸)
simp. (久假不归)

Etymology

[edit]

Originally, “to borrow the name of renyi (benevolence and righteousness) without actually practicing them”. From Jin Xin I of Mencius:

孟子:「。」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
孟子:「。」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Mencius, c. 4th century BCE, translated based on James Legge's version
Mèngzǐ yuē: “Yáo Shùn, xìng zhī yě; Tāng Wǔ, shēn zhī yě; wǔ bà, jiǎ zhī yě. Jiǔ jiǎ ér guī, wū zhī qí fēi yǒu yě.” [Pinyin]
Mencius said, 'Benevolence and righteousness were natural to Yao and Shun. Tang and Wu made them their own. The five chiefs of the princes feigned them. Having borrowed them long and not returned them, how could it be known they did not own them?'

Pronunciation

[edit]

Idiom

[edit]

久假不歸

  1. to borrow something and not return it for a long time

Usage notes

[edit]

By interpreting the characters as (jiǔ jià bù guī), the idiom could be mistaken to mean "to be on vacation for a long time and not return".