吹毛求疵

Chinese

to blow; blast; puff
to blow; blast; puff; boast; brag; end in failure
 
 hair; fur; one tenth of a yuan or dollar
to seek; to look for; to request
to seek; to look for; to request; to demand; to beseech
 
 blemish; flaw; defect
trad. (吹毛求疵) 吹 毛 求 疵
simp. #(吹毛求疵) 吹 毛 求 疵
Literally: “to blow apart the hairs in order to find a flaw”.

Etymology

From Han Feizi (《韓非子·大體》):

古之全大體者 […] 不逆天理，不傷情性；不吹毛而求小疵，不洗垢而察難知。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
古之全大体者 […] 不逆天理，不伤情性；不吹毛而求小疵，不洗垢而察难知。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Han Feizi, circa 2nd century BCE
Gǔ zhī quán dàtǐ zhě […] bù nì tiānlǐ, bù shāng qíngxìng; bù chuī máo ér qiú xiǎo cī, bù xǐ gòu ér chá nán zhī. [Pinyin]
The ancients who completed the principal features of legalism [...] never acted contrary to the course of heaven, never hurt the feeling and inherent nature of mankind, never blew off hair to find small defects, never washed off dirt to investigate something hard to know.

Pronunciation

Idiom

吹毛求疵

  1. to nitpick; to pick holes; to cavel at

Synonyms

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