To take something in without understanding any of it
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.
Told that pears are good for the teeth but bad for the stomach and dates the reverse, a man announced his solution: chew pears without swallowing, and swallow dates without chewing. Zhu Xi used him as the picture of a student who reads a book cover to cover and digests nothing.
Source: 《朱子语类》Classified Conversations of Master Zhu, 13th century AD
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.
囫囵吞枣 is pronounced hú lún tūn zǎo and means to take something in without understanding any of it. Literally it says "swallow the date whole" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《朱子语类》Classified Conversations of Master Zhu, 13th century AD. Told that pears are good for the teeth but bad for the stomach and dates the reverse, a man announced his solution: chew pears without swallowing, and swallow dates without chewing. Zhu Xi used him as the picture of a student who reads a book cover to cover and digests nothing.
hú lún tūn zǎo. 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.
囫 (hú) Whole, 囵 (lún) Whole (complete), 吞 (tūn) Swallow (to take), 枣 (zǎo) Jujube (date). 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.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the advanced band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 囫囵吞枣 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
All idioms