遗愿

• Pinyin: yí yuàn
• Hanzi breakdown: 遗 = 辶 + 贵 (movement + precious — left behind); 愿 = 原 + 心 (origin/source + heart — a wish arising from the heart)

Meaning

A dying wish; the unfulfilled wishes or aspirations left behind by a deceased person.

Refers to the wishes, hopes, or aspirations that a person expressed before death but did not live to see realised. Carries solemn emotional weight. Often motivates survivors to act on behalf of the deceased. Distinct from 遗嘱 (will — a legal document) and 遗言 (last words). Common in eulogy speeches, biographical writing, and patriotic narratives.

Examples

1. 完成父亲的遗愿，将这部未竟的学术著作整理出版，成为她此后十年最重要的人生使命。 Fulfilling her father’s final wish by editing and publishing his unfinished scholarly work became the most important mission of her life for the next ten years.
2. 革命先烈们的遗愿是建立一个独立自主、繁荣富强的国家，如今的成就是对他们最好的告慰。 The martyrs’ dying wish was to build an independent, self-reliant, prosperous, and strong nation; today’s achievements are the best consolation to them.
3. 这位老将军临终前的遗愿只有一个：希望在有生之年能够亲眼看到失散多年的战友的后人。 This old general had only one dying wish: to see, in his lifetime, the descendants of the comrades-in-arms from whom he had long been separated.

Usage Guide

Context: eulogy, biography, patriotic, family

Tone: solemn

Do Say

• 这位著名作曲家在病榻上留下遗愿，希望将自己毕生创作的乐谱手稿全部捐赠给国家音乐学院图书馆，以供后来的研究者和演奏者自由取用。(Lying on his sickbed, this renowned composer left behind a dying wish that all the manuscript scores he had created throughout his lifetime be donated to the national conservatory library, for future researchers and performers to access freely.)
• 接手父辈企业的第二代经营者表示，将秉持创始人的遗愿，坚守实业、拒绝资本化运作，把这家历经五十年风雨的制造企业一代代传承下去。(The second-generation operators who took over the family business stated that they would uphold the founder's dying wish — adhering to manufacturing and rejecting financialisation — and pass down this company, which had weathered fifty years of vicissitudes, from generation to generation.)

Don't Say

• 他的遗愿是想吃一碗面 — 遗愿 carries solemn weight as a final, deeply held aspiration; trivial preferences at the end of life are better described as 最后的心愿 or 临终前想 in a lighter register

Origin & History

遗 (left behind by the deceased) + 愿 (wish/aspiration — 原 source/origin + 心 heart, a heartfelt wish)

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal