📖 Meaning
This idiom means to suffer defeat in every battle one fights. It describes an army or a person who fails each and every time they engage, no matter how often they try. By extension it is used for repeated, seemingly inevitable failure in any contest.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the Biography of Xiao He in the Book of Han (汉书·萧何传), compiled by Ban Gu during the Eastern Han dynasty about the early Western Han period. Set during the Chu-Han contention, it records a dialogue in which the King of Han, Liu Bang, asked in despair why one would seek death. His adviser Xiao He replied that their forces could not match the enemy's, that they would lose a hundred battles out of a hundred, and what else remained but death. The phrase survived as a vivid image of losing every engagement, and it is now used for repeated failure of any kind.
💡 Example Usage
这支军队百战百败，士兵们早已丧失了信心。
This army has been defeated in every battle it has fought, and its soldiers have long since lost all confidence.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 百战百败
- Pinyin: bǎi zhàn bǎi bài
- Literal Translation: hundred battles, hundred defeats
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4