Chinese idiom · 成语
积重难返
Meaning
Accumulated weight hard to reverse; entrenched habits resist change.
Character by character
Origin and story
Political writingIn his Chen liu shi shu, a memorial proposing six matters for reform, the Ming statesman Zhang Juzheng argues that good personal intentions at the top are insufficient when practical government needs renewal. He warns that repeated habits have produced abuses and that accumulated problems are approaching a point at which reversal will be difficult.
His wording uses fan written 反, a form corresponding here to 返, returning or reversing. The image is of errors acquiring weight through repetition. This is an attested source associated with the idiom, rather than proof that Zhang invented it. Today it describes deeply entrenched harmful habits or institutional failings that cannot be quickly undone.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
拖延已经成了整个团队的习惯，积重难返，得从每天的安排改起。
Procrastination has become so entrenched across the team that we need to start changing our daily routines.
Describes accumulated negative habits or systemic problems, not something merely old.