收敛

• Pinyin: shōu liǎn
• Hanzi breakdown: 收 = 丩 + 攴 (to bring in, collect); 敛 = 攴 + 佥 (to draw in, restrain — bringing all things back under control)

Meaning

To restrain; to rein in; to become more subdued. To moderate one's behaviour, tone, or expression, pulling back from excess.

Carries a strong behavioural nuance — it implies that someone who was previously excessive, arrogant, or unruly has pulled back. Common in political commentary (官员收敛行为 — officials curbing corrupt behaviour), interpersonal contexts (说话收敛一点 — tone it down a bit), and mathematics (级数收敛 — series convergence). Contrast: 放肆 (to be unbridled/impudent — the opposite of 收敛); 克制 (self-restraint — similar but more about internal discipline than visible pulling back).

Examples

1. 自从纪委介入调查之后，该部门的违规报销现象已明显收敛，各科室负责人在审批流程上也变得格外谨慎。 Since the disciplinary commission launched its investigation, improper reimbursement practices in the department have noticeably died down, and the heads of each section have become especially cautious in the approval process.
2. 年轻时他说话向来直冲锋锐，毫不留情，进入中层管理岗位后才逐渐学会了在正式场合收敛锋芒，以更周全的方式表达意见。 When he was young, he spoke bluntly and showed no mercy; only after moving into middle management did he gradually learn to rein in his sharp edge in formal settings and express his views in a more thoughtful way.
3. 数学分析课上，教授要求学生运用柯西准则严格证明该幂级数在收敛半径内绝对收敛，且在边界点处的收敛性须另作讨论。 In mathematical analysis, the professor asked students to use the Cauchy criterion to rigorously prove that the power series converges absolutely within its radius of convergence, and that convergence at the boundary points must be discussed separately.

Usage Guide

Context: behaviour, politics, interpersonal, mathematics

Tone: cautionary

Do Say

• 在高压监管下，部分企业的违规行为虽有收敛，但多半只是躲避检查；一旦压力减弱，旧习仍会复发。(Under strict regulation, some companies' misconduct may have become more restrained, but that is mostly just to avoid inspection; once the pressure eases, old habits still return.)
• 与强势的合作方进行谈判时，适度收敛自身的强硬立场并留出协商空间，往往比寸步不让更有助于达成对双方均可接受的最终协议。(When negotiating with a dominant partner, moderately restraining one's own hard-line stance and leaving room for negotiation is often more conducive to reaching a final agreement acceptable to both parties than refusing to yield an inch.)

Don't Say

• 收敛 to mean simply 'to decrease' in a general statistical or quantitative sense — use 减少 (to decrease) or 降低 (to reduce); 收敛 specifically implies active pulling-back of behaviour, energy, or expression (or convergence in mathematics), not a neutral quantitative decline

Origin & History

收 (to collect, to bring in) + 敛 (to restrain, to draw in — 攴 to act + 佥 all, suggesting gathering everything back)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal