Chinese idiom · 成语
焚膏继晷
Meaning
To burn oil to extend daylight; to work tirelessly.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary expressionHan Yu’s Jin Xue Jie (進學解) stages a dialogue between an instructor and students. When the instructor urges diligence, a student points to the teacher’s own tireless scholarship: he constantly recites and reads, pursues knowledge large and small, and burns lamp oil to continue studying beyond daylight.
The description is part of the essay’s tension between learning and recognition, not simply an anonymous scholar’s nightly timetable. The later idiom compresses the lamp-and-daylight image into sustained effort through day and night. It often praises study or writing, and can extend to work generally, without requiring literal oil lamps or an exact hour of the night.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
她为整理爷爷的手稿焚膏继晷，朋友劝她也要留些时间休息。
She worked late into the night organizing her grandfather’s manuscripts, and her friends urged her to leave time for rest too.
Literary description of intensive work or study; not advice to sacrifice sleep routinely.