糟粕 literally means 'wine lees and bean dregs' - what's left after fermentation or pressing. The famous figurative use comes from
庄子《
天道》, where Wheelwright Bian tells Duke Huan that the writings of the ancient sages are merely
古人之糟粕 ('the dregs of the ancients'). The phrase
取其精华，
去其糟粕 ('take the essence, discard the dross') became a stock formula in 20th-century debates about reforming tradition.
