As long as you can barely get by, just get by. Describe the lack of ambition and long-term plans. It also refers to work perfunctorily and irresponsibly.
Idiom Pronunciation:
得过且过
dé guò qiě guò
Origin book:
《南村辍耕录·寒号虫》：“羽毛脱落，索然如彀雏，遂自呜曰：得过且过。”
Origin Story:
According to legend, on the Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province, there is a small bird shaped like a chicken, called the cold bug. In ancient books, it is also called Qaidan, Haidan or Duchun. It has four legs and two fleshy wings, and cannot fly very far. The dung it pulls down is as big as a bean, smells bad when wet, and becomes black and glossy after drying, which is what medical practitioners call five lingzhi.
With the change of seasons in a year, the appearance of the cold bug will also change significantly. In the summer when the sun is shining and the trees are shady, its body is full of colorful feathers, which look rich and gorgeous and dazzling. At this time, the cold bug will fly out from the forest, fluttering its wings in the sunlight and chirping proudly: “The phoenix is not as good as me! The phoenix is not as good as me!”
However, in the cold winter when the wind is bitterly cold and the snow is flying, it loses all its feathers and becomes like a chick just out of its shell, showing an ugly look of wretchedness and shabbiness. At this time, it no longer dared to fly out of the forest, and could only hide deep in the bushes, wailing breathlessly: “Get over it, get over it, get over it.”
Tao Zongyi, a famous scholar in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, wrote down this legend in the “South Village Dropout” and said with deep emotion: “There are some people in the world today who have no talent and integrity, and once they have achieved something, they will be proud of themselves, thinking that no one else in the world exceeds them; when they have a slight setback, they will immediately become like a dog in mourning, bending their heads and ears, wagging their tails and begging for mercy. This kind of person is compared to the cold bug, and what is the difference!
Similar Idioms:
- 马马虎虎
- 苟且偷生
- 敷衍了事
