Chinese idiom · 成语
连篇累牍
Meaning
Pages upon pages; lengthy, redundant writing.
Character by character
Origin and story
literaryThe Book of Sui (隋书), in Li E's biography, preserves his criticism of a literary fashion he associated especially with the southern Qi and Liang dynasties. Writers, he complains, compete over a clever word or unusual rhyme while abandoning substance. Their compositions stretch across many writing tablets, yet never move beyond descriptions of moonlight, dew, wind, and clouds.
His wider argument connects these literary preferences with educational and political priorities. The idiom itself extracts the image of excessive written quantity: 牍 refers to wooden writing tablets, and 累 to their accumulation. Today 连篇累牍 often criticizes unnecessarily long writing, though sheer length and lack of substance are judgments supplied by the particular context.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
通知只要说明时间和地点，不必写得连篇累牍。
The notice only needs the time and place; there is no need to write pages and pages.
Usually critical of excessive length, especially in writing; 累 is lěi, not lèi.