Chinese idiom · 成语
顺水推舟
Meaning
Push the boat with the current; go with the flow.
Character by character
Origin and story
Traditional metaphorPushing a boat with the current makes use of a force already carrying it forward. The expression is grounded in that practical image rather than one uniquely identified boating incident. Related wording, shun shui liu zhou, appears in the Four-Character Classic cited by the dictionary, while later fiction uses several closely related forms.
In The Three Heroes and Five Gallants, a character caught in an opponent's grip lowers himself with the movement instead of resisting it; the exact idiom describes that action. Figuratively it means going along with circumstances or helping something already under way. That can be helpful, opportunistic, or compromising, depending on the situation.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
既然大家都想早点开会，我就顺水推舟，把时间提前了。
Since everyone wanted an earlier meeting, I went along with it and moved the time forward.
Going along with an existing tendency or opportunity; not inherently good or bad.