大宗师

大宗師
Dàzōngshī
proper noun

Meanings

  1. 1 The Great Ancestral Teacher, chapter 6 of the Zhuangzi

Examples

HSK 7-9
" Xiāngrúyǐmò " zhège chéngyǔ chūzì 《 Zhuāngzǐ · Dàzōngshī 》.
The idiom 'to moisten each other with spittle' comes from The Great Ancestral Teacher in the Zhuangzi.

Tips

history
The great ancestral teacher is the Dao itself, the one master worth following. The chapter describes the 真人 'true man', who neither clings to life nor hates death, and has 颜回 tell Confucius that he has learned 坐忘 'to sit and forget', letting go of body and mind until he is one with the Way.
culture
Several idioms come from it: 相濡以沫, from fish stranded on dry land who keep each other alive with spittle, though Zhuangzi adds they would do better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes; 莫逆之交, from four friends who looked at each other and laughed, with nothing in their hearts against each other; and 善始善终.

Stroke Order

大 dà
宗 zōng
师 shī