心满意足

Origin and story

The History of the Han describes Zhen Feng and other supporters of Wang Mang as already satisfied with the high ranks and benefits they had received. Its wording, 心意既满, conveys fulfillment but is not the exact idiom. The surrounding account also shows that satisfaction with rewards did not remove their political fears.

An exact Song example appears in Liu Kezhuang's second letter to Secretary Ouyang. Praising the recipient's writing for fresh insights and coherent reasoning, he says it leaves a reader completely satisfied. The phrase can therefore describe intellectual pleasure or modest everyday contentment, not only the fulfillment of material ambition.