This year's four-character Chinese idiom chosen

This photo released Sunday by the Kyosu Sinmun shows the written calligraphy of "gyeonlimangui," a four-character Chinese idiom meaning “virtue was forgotten for gain."

College professors picked "gyeonlimangui" (見利忘義), a four-character Chinese idiom meaning "virtue was forgotten for gain," as the expression that best describes Korean society in 2023.

According to a survey whose results were released on Sunday by the Kyosu Sinmun, a weekly newspaper for scholars, 396 out of 1,315 respondents (30.1 percent) voted for the expression as this year’s idiom.

Kim Byung-ki, a Jeonbuk National University professor emeritus who had recommended the idiom, said an every-man-for-himself attitude prevailed in the country where virtues were largely forgotten and forsaken as a result.

“Due to selfish thoughts and the pervasive tendency to justify (what is wrong), many fraud cases have occurred,” Kim wrote. “Gyeon-li-mang-ui might bring gains (to individuals), but it will eventually lead to destruction.”

As examples of the concerning trend, he pointed to the widespread rental housing scams and the frequent violations of teachers’ rights and authority at schools.

One of the professors who had voted for the idiom called on political leaders to do more to set good examples, saying they appear to be interested mostly in political gain instead of their responsibilities, particularly in recent years.

The second-most-voted phrase was "jeogbanhajang" (賊反荷杖), which literally means “a thief picking up a club,” an idiom used to criticize shameless people. It received 335 votes to account for 25.5 percent of respondents.