Chinese idiom · 成语
食古不化
Meaning
Swallowing antiquity undigested; rigid adherence to old ways.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary criticismThe metaphor treats learning as food that needs digestion. In a Qing preface to the recorded sayings of the monk Poshan, Yan Ermei considers the difficulties of teaching through words. Among them is the risk that invoking antiquity becomes like eating something raw without digesting it. The dictionary presents this as a possible antecedent, with sheng rather than gu in that passage.
The exact idiom appears in the Complete Library's catalogue criticism of Kongtong Ji, where rigid imitation of earlier poetic models is faulted despite the writer's ability. It criticizes knowledge taken in without understanding or adaptation, not the study of old books itself.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
学传统菜谱也不能食古不化，食材变了，做法就得调整。
Even traditional recipes shouldn't be followed rigidly; when ingredients change, the method needs adjusting.
Criticizes failure to understand and adapt inherited knowledge.