千篇一律
- Literal
- a thousand pieces of writing, one single pattern
- Figurative
- All cut from the same cloth: many supposedly different things that keep repeating one formula until it gets tiresome.
Where does 千篇一律 come from?
No particular anecdote lies behind it. The vocabulary comes from writing and criticism: 篇 is a single written piece and 律 is the rule or pattern that shapes it, so a thousand pieces end up following one template. The contrast between the huge number (千) and the single one (一) is the same device that drives other numerical idioms, and here it drives home the monotony. Today it reaches far beyond writing — buildings, songs, ads, videos — almost always with a note of complaint.
How is 千篇一律 used? Two examples
- 这些短视频千篇一律，看几个就腻了。
These short videos are all the same; you watch a few and you're already sick of them.
- 新城区的楼房千篇一律，走着走着就迷路了。
The buildings in the new district are all identical; you walk a while and end up lost.
In Wanyu, all 400 chengyu have audio on every sentence, and you can save them to your decks and review them with spaced repetition. Free.
