大公无私 (dà gōng wú sī) — selfless and impartial; without selfish motives

Definition

A chengyu praising someone who acts purely for the public good with no personal bias — stronger and more literary than 公平 ('fair') and 客观 ('objective'). Pairs naturally with 无私, which is the plain-adjective base 'selfless'.

phrase

selfless and impartialwithout selfish motives

Examples

大公无私，。
Tā shì yí wèi dà gōng wú sī de lǐng dǎo rén, shēn shòu rén mín ài dài.
He is a selfless leader deeply loved by the people.
大公无私，。
Chǔ lǐ zhè jiàn shì bì xū dà gōng wú sī, bù néng yǒu gè rén piān jiàn.
Handling this matter must be impartial, with no personal prejudice.
大公无私。
Fǎ guān de dà gōng wú sī ràng rén duì fǎ lǜ chōng mǎn xìn xīn.
The judge's impartiality fills people with confidence in the law.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

大公public good

大dàgreat公gōngpublic

偏正Modifier + head

无私without selfishness

无wúwithout私sīselfishness

动宾Verb + object

大公 points to the public good, and 无私 removes selfish motives.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

Open 公 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

禾厶私

Meaning part形符xíngfú

禾禾hé

Sound part声符shēngfú

厶

厶sī私sī

Same sound today

私 combines 禾 and 厶; 厶 originally represented the word, and 禾 was added later.

Open 私 →

Appears in