固步自封

gùbùzìfēng

idiom #51,913

Meanings

1 to stand still and refuse progress
2 to be stuck in one's ways
3 to seal oneself off from change

Characters

fixed; stubborn

to seal; to close off

Examples

企业不能固步自封，必须不断创新。

Qǐyè bùnéng gùbùzìfēng, bìxū bùduàn chuàngxīn.

A company can't stand still — it must keep innovating.

他思想保守，固步自封，难以接受新事物。

Tā sīxiǎng bǎoshǒu, gùbùzìfēng, nányǐ jiēshòu xīn shìwù.

He's conservative and stuck in his ways, slow to accept anything new.

传统行业如果固步自封，很快就会被淘汰。

Chuántǒng hángyè rúguǒ gùbùzìfēng, hěn kuài jiù huì bèi táotài.

Traditional industries that refuse to move forward are quickly left behind.

Tips

history

Related to the Han-era story in 《汉书·叙传上》 about the man from Handan who studied someone else's walk: "曾未得其仿佛，又复失其故步" — he never mastered the new step and lost his own original gait. 固步 here literally "fixed step" — sticking rigidly to one's old way.

mistakes

Often written 故步自封 — 故步 (old step) and 固步 (fixed step) both circulate; modern dictionaries accept both, but 固步自封 is the form listed in Xinhua's chengyu dictionary.

Stroke Order

固 gù

步 bù

自 zì

封 fēng