淡泊明志 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• living a simple life as one's ideal

Character by character

• 淡dànwatery, dilute; insipid, tasteless
• 泊bóto anchor; to moor
• 明míngbright, clear; to explain, to understand, to shed
• 志zhìdetermination, will; mark, sign; to record, to wri

Idioms sharing a character

• 平淡无奇 píng dàn wú qí
• 惨淡经营 cǎn dàn jīng yíng
• 淡妆浓抹 dàn zhuāng nóng mǒ
• 淡泊名利 dàn bó míng lì
• 轻描淡写 qīng miáo dàn xiě
• 漂泊无依 piāo bó wú yī
• 鸾飘凤泊 luán piāo fèng bó
• 不明不白 bù míng bù bái
• 不明事理 bù míng shì lǐ
• 不言自明 bù yán zì míng

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.