Our goal is to provide you with free Chinese learning tools. This series highlights idioms and proverbs, full of meaning and adaptable to many contexts. The featured idiom is 「涅而不緇」, with details below.
Here is the Chinese idiom 「涅而不緇」, along with its meaning and how it is used.
Nie: the name of a mineral, used as a black dye in ancient times; Zi: black. It cannot be dyed black even with Nirvana dye. It is a metaphor for noble character that is not affected by bad environment.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
niè ér bù zī
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
nip6 yi4 bat1 ji1
Chinese idioms are incredibly numerous, each carrying a special meaning and usage. This variety is a great reason to study them, and we hope these tools make that easier for you.
