扫地僧

掃地僧
Sǎodìsēng
popculture

Meanings

  1. 1 the Sweeper Monk: a nameless monk who sweeps the Shaolin sutra library in Jin Yong’s novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (天龙八部); by extension, an unassuming master whose true power is hidden

Examples

Tā píngshí bù ài shuōhuà, méi xiǎngdào shì gè sǎodìsēng.
He’s usually quiet — turns out he was a hidden master all along.
Gōngsī lǐ nà wèi lǎo gōngchéngshī jiùshì gè sǎodìsēng.
That veteran engineer at the company is the office’s “sweeper monk”.

Tips

culture
Originally a minor character in 金庸 Jin Yong’s 天龙, the Sweeper Monk silently outclasses all the novel’s top fighters in a single chapter. Now a stock metaphor in Chinese internet culture for the quiet expert nobody noticed — your janitor / intern who is secretly the best in the room.

In Pop Culture

天龙 Tiānlóng Bābù
Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils
Jin Yong wuxia novel (1963) where the Sweeper Monk first appears in a single iconic scene at Shaolin Temple.

Stroke Order

sǎo
sēng