Chinese idiom · 成语
固步自封
Meaning
To seal oneself in old steps; to be complacent and stagnant.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary expressionThe related form 故步自封 combines old ways of walking with self-imposed limits. Han Shu (漢書), Xu Zhuan I (敘傳上), uses 故步 while retelling the Handan walking fable: an unsuccessful imitator loses his previous way of walking. Yu Chan’s Duan Jiu Jie (斷酒戒) uses 自封 in a separate debate about restricting oneself.
The combined phrase appears in later writing, including Liang Qichao’s criticism of constricted outlooks. Its modern meaning is not the fable’s warning against imitation, but refusing to move beyond established habits. 固步自封 is also recorded as a form of the expression; the underlying criticism is complacency that prevents improvement.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
做了十年设计，也不能固步自封，该学的新工具还是要学。
Even after ten years in design, you cannot rest on old habits; you still need to learn new tools.
Criticizes self-satisfied resistance to improvement, not thoughtful preservation of useful traditions.