安能摧眉折腰事权贵

安能摧眉折腰事權貴

ān néng cuī méi zhé yāo shì quánguì

quotation

Meanings

1 how could I bow my brow and bend my waist to serve the powerful?
2 a defiant refusal to grovel before authority; uncompromising integrity
3 (lit.) how-can crush-brow bend-waist serve power-nobility

Characters

how (classical interrogative)

can / be able to

to break / lower

brow (摧眉 = lower the brow)

waist (折腰 = bow at the waist)

noble (权贵 = the powerful and noble)

Examples

HSK 7-9

他辞去了高薪职位，说安能摧眉折腰事权贵，使我不得开心颜。

Tā cíqù le gāoxīn zhíwèi, shuō ān néng cuī méi zhé yāo shì quánguì, shǐ wǒ bùdé kāixīn yán.

He quit his high-paying job, saying 'how could I bow my brow and bend my waist to the powerful, never again free to smile?'

HSK 7-9

读书人讲气节，自古便有安能摧眉折腰事权贵的风骨。

Dúshūrén jiǎng qìjié, zìgǔ biàn yǒu ān néng cuī méi zhé yāo shì quánguì de fēnggǔ.

Scholars have always prized integrity - the backbone expressed in 'how could I bow and bend to serve the powerful?'

Tips

history

From 李白《梦游天姥吟留别》 (Li Bai, Tang, 745 CE), the poem's closing outburst after his ejection from the imperial court. Worldly pleasures are fleeting, all things flow east like water; how could the poet lower his brow and bend his waist to serve the powerful, and never again be free to smile? The line became the canonical motto of literati defiance.

usage

Usually followed by 使我不得开心颜 - the two lines are inseparable. 摧眉 literally 'to crush the brow' = to lower one's face in submission; 折腰 (bend at the waist) famously alludes to Tao Yuanming's refusal to 'bend his waist for five pecks of rice.'

Stroke Order

安 ān

能 néng

摧 cuī

眉 méi

折 zhé

腰 yāo

事 shì

权 quán

贵 guì