全神贯注
- Literal
- to gather all one's spirit and pour in one's attention
- Figurative
- To be fully absorbed in something, with all one's attention and energy focused on a single task.
Where does 全神贯注 come from?
It does not come from any classical anecdote: it is a relatively modern set phrase built from two parallel pairs, 全神 ("all one's spirit") and 贯注 ("to channel, to pour in one's attention"). It settled into Chinese prose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and today is very common in everyday speech and at school to describe full concentration on a task.
How is 全神贯注 used? Two examples
- 考试的时候，他全神贯注，连旁边的人走了都没发现。
During the exam he was so absorbed that he didn't even notice the person next to him had left.
- 妹妹全神贯注地画画，一个上午都没说话。
My little sister was painting with full concentration and didn't say a word all morning.
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