Chinese idiom · 成语
抱残守缺
Meaning
To cling to flaws and scraps; to resist progress.
Character by character
Origin and story
Scholarly controversyThe antecedent 保殘守缺 appears in Liu Xin's letter to the court's classical scholars, preserved in the Hanshu (漢書), volume 36. Liu argued that newly available old-script texts deserved scholarly attention. He accused opponents of clinging to incomplete inherited material and protecting their own positions instead of examining the evidence fairly.
The expression arose from a controversy about the transmission and official study of classical texts, not a broken-object story in the Book of Rites. The later wording 抱残守缺 broadens the criticism to refusing useful changes in ideas or practices. It does not mean that everything old is worthless; the target is inflexible attachment despite recognized shortcomings.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
流程已经明显不适用，我们不能再抱残守缺。
The procedure clearly no longer works for us; we cannot keep clinging to it.
Critical of resisting necessary improvement, not of preserving heritage itself.