Chinese idiom · 成语
美人迟暮
Meaning
A beauty past her prime; a melancholy image of aging and lost youth.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary imageThe image comes from Li Sao, the long poem traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan and preserved in the Chuci. Near its beginning, the speaker feels time slipping away: the sun and moon do not pause, spring and autumn replace each other, and plants wither. These changes prompt fear that beauty too will reach its twilight.
The surrounding poem links fragrant plants, personal cultivation, and hopes for worthy action. The idiom draws its poignancy from that larger anxiety about passing time, rather than from a separate tale about a particular aging woman. It later describes the sorrow of growing older and finding one's prime gone.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
重看她年轻时的电影，妈妈不禁感叹美人迟暮。
Watching her films from her younger days again, Mum sighed at how even beauty grows old.
Literary and melancholy; commenting this way on someone's appearance can sound insensitive.