邯郸学步 hán dān xué bù

In use

To lose your own ability copying someone else's

Literally

learning the Handan walk

Pinyin

hán dān xué bù

The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.

A young man of Yan went to Handan because he admired the elegant way its people walked. He never mastered it — and forgot how he used to walk himself. He crawled home.

Source: 《庄子》Zhuangzi, 4th century BC

The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.

Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.

These share a character with 邯郸学步 or come from the same classical source, so the characters you have just learned pay off straight away.

What does 邯郸学步 mean?

邯郸学步 is pronounced hán dān xué bù and means to lose your own ability copying someone else's. Literally it says "learning the Handan walk" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.

Where does 邯郸学步 come from?

《庄子》Zhuangzi, 4th century BC. A young man of Yan went to Handan because he admired the elegant way its people walked. He never mastered it — and forgot how he used to walk himself. He crawled home.

How do you pronounce 邯郸学步?

hán dān xué bù. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.

What do the characters in 邯郸学步 mean?

学 (xué) Learn (study - imitate - science - ology), 步 (bù) Step (stages). These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.

Is 邯郸学步 still used today?

Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the intermediate band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.