Chinese idiom · 成语
师心自用
Meaning
Following one’s own heart; stubborn self-reliance.
Character by character
Origin and story
Classical idea and later usageThe central idea is taking one's own mind as the teacher and sole authority. The Zhuangzi's Discussion on Making All Things Equal questions reliance on an already formed mind: if everyone treats their own settled viewpoint as a teacher, who would lack a teacher? The wording is a philosophical antecedent, not the complete modern phrase.
The exact idiom appears in a Tang memorial by Lu Zhi, criticizing a ruler who indulges his own judgment and rejects remonstrance. Song thinker Lu Jiuyuan likewise warns that it prevents learners from listening. It therefore criticizes closed-minded self-certainty, rather than the healthy ability to think independently.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
设计师不能师心自用，用户的实际困难也要听进去。
Designers mustn't rely only on their own views; they need to listen to users' real difficulties too.
Critical of refusing outside advice, not of independent thought itself.