一心

• Pinyin: yī xīn
• Hanzi breakdown: 一 = one (single, undivided); 心 = heart radical (heart and mind — seat of intention, feeling, and will)

Meaning

Wholeheartedly; single-mindedly; with one's entire heart and mind directed at a single aim. Used adverbially to describe complete, undivided concentration and dedication.

Functions as an adverb modifying verbs: 一心扑在工作上 (throwing oneself wholly into work), 一心为公 (single-mindedly serving the public interest), 一心求成 (focused solely on achieving success). Positive connotation emphasising purity of intent. Less emphatic than the four-character 一心一意 but broader in use.

Examples

1. 她一心扑在博士论文上，推掉了所有社交活动，用近两年的时间完成了这项跨学科研究。 She threw herself into her PhD dissertation, turned down all social activities, and spent nearly two years completing this interdisciplinary research.
2. 这位老村医一心为乡亲们服务，从医三十年从未拒绝过深夜出诊，赢得了全村人的深厚信任。 This elderly village doctor is devoted to serving his neighbors; in thirty years of practice he has never refused a late-night house call, earning the village’s deep trust.
3. 新入职的工程师一心想证明自己的能力，主动请缨接手了团队中最棘手的一个遗留系统重构项目。 The newly hired engineer was determined to prove his abilities and volunteered to take on the team’s toughest legacy-system refactoring project.

Usage Guide

Context: work, dedication, narrative, moral discourse

Tone: positive

Do Say

• 这位外科医生在手术台旁一心专注于患者的生命体征，身旁的助手负责处理一切外部干扰，确保主刀全程保持高度集中。(This surgeon focused wholeheartedly on the patient's vital signs at the operating table, with the assistant beside managing all external distractions to ensure the lead surgeon maintained peak concentration throughout.)
• 扶贫工作队驻村三年，队员们一心挂念着村民的生计问题，节假日也常常留在村里推进产业帮扶项目，很少回城探亲。(The poverty alleviation task force was stationed in the village for three years; the team members were wholeheartedly concerned with villagers' livelihood issues, often staying in the village even during public holidays to advance industry support projects, rarely returning to the city to visit family.)

Don't Say

• 他们一心两用地工作 — 一心 means undivided focus; 一心两用 (one heart, two uses) already exists as an idiom meaning to do two things at once, which contradicts the single-minded meaning; do not combine these

Origin & History

一 (one/single) + 心 (heart/mind — 心 radical: the heart as the seat of thought, feeling, and intention)

Cultural Context

Era: Classical/Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal