无下箸处 — “To describe extreme extravagance and luxurious indulgence in dining”

无下箸处 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to describe extreme extravagance and luxurious indulgence in dining”. Where there is such an overwhelming abundance of food that one feels there is "no place to set one's chopsticks" (implying one doesn't know where to start or is overwhelmed by the sheer variety and quantity). It often carries a connotation of wasteful opulence. Literally, “No place to set one's chopsticks”.

Frequency

无下箸处 Pronunciation and Pinyin

无下箸处 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
无	wú	4	without, not having
下	xià	3	below, down, next, to descend
箸	zhù	14	Chopsticks
处	chǔ	5	to be at a place

Example Sentence with 无下箸处

如今有些高档宴席，菜品琳琅满目，真是无下箸处，让人不知从何尝起。

At some high-end banquets nowadays, the dishes are so varied and abundant that one truly feels "there's no place to set one's chopsticks," making it hard to know where to begin tasting.

Origin and Story of 无下箸处

During the Western Jin Dynasty, there lived a high-ranking official named Ho Ceng (何曾), who was one of the Three Ducal Ministers and renowned for his filial piety and benevolence. He took great pride in meticulously adhering to rites and rituals, to the extent that he would even dress formally when addressing his own wife.

He once openly criticized the famous scholar Ruan Ji (阮籍) for his excessive eating and drinking during a period of mourning, deeming it a severe breach of filial piety.

However, Ho Ceng himself was exceedingly fastidious about his own meals, spending an extravagant sum of ten thousand copper coins on each. Despite this overwhelming abundance, he would often complain that there was "no place to set his chopsticks," implying that even with such luxurious fare, he couldn't find a dish appealing enough or was simply overwhelmed by the sheer scale of his indulgence.