📖 Meaning
Out of a hundred, not one remains. It signifies near-total destruction or loss, with only a negligible fraction surviving. The idiom conveys the devastation of losing almost everything.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the preface to the collected works of Yu Xin (庾信), written by Yuwen You (宇文逌) of the Northern Zhou dynasty. Yu Xin had once compiled a collection of fourteen volumes, but during the upheaval of the Taiqing era rebellion, almost nothing survived. The same expression also appears in the Biography of Cai Xingzong in the Southern History, where it describes how officials and commoners, fearful for their lives, sought to flee, only for nearly all of them to perish in subsequent disasters.
💡 Example Usage
经过那场战乱，昔日繁华的小镇百不一存。
After the ravages of war, the once-prosperous town was left with scarcely one in a hundred intact.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 百不一存
- Pinyin: bǎi bù yī cún
- Literal Translation: hundred, not, one, remain
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4