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才高八斗 cáigāobādǒu
释义
形容人文才高超
英译
(a man) of great talent
出处
南朝·宋·无名氏《释常谈·斗之才》：文章多，谓之八斗之才。
近义词
学富五车，满腹经纶
反义词
才疏学浅，胸无点墨
典故
南朝宋国谢灵运是中国古代著名的山水诗人。政治上的失意使他寄情于山水之间，著有众多山水诗。他的诗描写的大多是会稽、永嘉、庐山等地的山水名胜，开创了文学史上山水诗的派别。谢灵运的诗因其艺术性很强，特别注重形式美，很受文人雅士的喜爱。
宋文帝十分赏识谢灵运的才能，特意将他召回京都任职，并称他的诗作和书法为“二宝”。谢灵运为人轻狂，恃才傲物，曾饮酒自叹：“天下才共一石（一种计量单位，一石等于十斗），曹子建（曹植）独得八斗，我得一斗，自古及今共分一斗。”这意味着天下人的才华，除了曹植外，他都不放在眼里。
此后，后世便称才学出众者为“才高八斗”。
Xie Lingyun was a famous landscape poet in the State of Song during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589). He wrote many pieces of Landscape Poems on account of disappointments in official career. His poems were related to the landscape of Kuaiji, Yongjia, Lushan, etc. He created the faction of Landscape Poems. His pieces were very popular by refined scholars at that time because of the high artistic quality and the distinguished beauty.
Emperor Song thought highly of Xie Lingyun, and recalled him to the capital Jiankang (now Nanjing). The Emperor Song also regarded his poems and calligraphy works as “double teasures”.
Self-conceited and frivolous, Xie Lingyun said, “There is just one dan (a unit of dry measure for grain, which equals ten dou) in the world. Cao Zijian accounted for eight dou, and I got one. Others equally divided another one." That is to say, he looked down upon every scholar except Cao Zhi.
After that, people use 才高八斗 to describe a knowledgeable man who holds outstanding academic ability.