Chinese idiom · 成语
江郎才尽
Meaning
Jiang Lang’s talent is exhausted; to run out of creativity.
Character by character
Origin and story
LegendZhong Rong’s Shipin (詩品), middle volume, tells a dream story about the writer Jiang Yan. A man identifying himself as Guo Pu asks for a brush he says has been left with Jiang for years. Jiang finds a five-colored brush inside his clothing and returns it. The tale associates that loss with his subsequent inability to produce fine poetry.
Liang Shu gives a more restrained report that his talent declined somewhat in later years; Nan Shi preserves additional dream material. The supernatural brush is a literary explanation, not evidence that talent is literally transferable. The idiom expresses perceived creative exhaustion and may also be used jokingly about a temporary lack of ideas.
In everyday life
连续写了几十条广告文案后，我暂时有点江郎才尽了。
After writing dozens of ads in a row, I’ve temporarily run out of creative ideas.
Often self-deprecating; do not mistake a temporary block for permanent inability.