









拂衣而去 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to leave abruptly in a fit of pique or displeasure”. Often with a gesture of shaking one's sleeves to express disdain or annoyance. Literally, “Brush sleeves and depart”.
When Wang Zijing was young, he once saw his father's students gambling. Observing the turns of luck, he remarked, "The south wind is not strong enough."
The students, dismissing him as a child, scornfully said, "A child looking at a leopard through a tube only sees a spot."
Deeply angered, Zijing retorted, "I feel distant shame when compared to Xun Fengqian, and close shame when compared to Liu Zhenzhang." With that, he shook his sleeves and departed.

Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →
Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →
Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →
Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →拂衣而去 (fú yī ér qù) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to leave abruptly in a fit of pique or displeasure”.
拂衣而去 is pronounced fú yī ér qù in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 拂衣而去 means “Brush sleeves and depart”. It is used to mean “to leave abruptly in a fit of pique or displeasure”.
拂衣而去 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
形容很生气,一甩袖子就走了