‘避凶趋吉’ is a classical four-character idiom meaning 'to avoid misfortune and seek good fortune.' It combines two parallel verb-object pairs: 避 (bì, 'to avoid') + 凶 (xiōng, 'misfortune, calamity'), and 趋 (qū, 'to move toward, pursue') + 吉 (jí, 'good fortune, auspiciousness'). The structure reflects a fundamental human desire for safety and prosperity, often rooted in traditional Chinese cosmology, folk beliefs, and Daoist or Confucian values emphasizing prudent conduct and harmonious alignment with natural and moral order.

This idiom appears frequently in literary, philosophical, and ritual contexts — for example, in discussions of feng shui, divination practices, or ethical decision-making. Though formal and somewhat literary, it remains widely understood and occasionally used in modern writing or speech to describe deliberate, proactive efforts to steer clear of danger while cultivating favorable outcomes — not through superstition alone, but through wisdom, preparation, and virtue.