Tā wèi yīdiǎn xiǎoshì jiūjié bùxiū, zhēnshì xiǎorén cháng qīqī.
He frets endlessly over trifles — truly "the petty person is constantly anxious".
Tips
history
From 《论语·述而》 (Analects, Book 7): 君子坦荡荡，小人长戚戚 — 'The gentleman is calm and at ease; the petty person is long in anxiety.' One of the sharpest Confucian contrasts in the Analects, still frequently cited in Chinese moral-psychological discussion.
usage
戚戚 is a reduplicated adjective meaning 'fretful, uneasy' — the doubling intensifies. Here 小人 = 'petty/small-minded person' (the moralized sense, unlike the sociological sense in 小人之德草).
