📖 Meaning
To run about while calling out for help. It describes someone in distress actively seeking aid and support from others. The phrase conveys urgency and desperation in appealing for assistance.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from a prayer text by the Ming dynasty philosopher and official Wang Shouren (Wang Yangming), specifically his 'Prayer for Rain at Nanzhen' collected in the Complete Works of Wang Wencheng. In the text, local officials and their people ran about calling out in prayer during a severe drought, having exhausted every means of supplication yet still seeing no rain. The scene of frantic petitioning gave rise to the idiom's sense of desperate appeal for relief.
💡 Example Usage
灾情发生后，各地民众奔走呼号，呼吁社会伸出援手。
After the disaster struck, people everywhere ran about calling for help, urging society to lend a hand.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 奔走呼号
- Pinyin: bēn zǒu hū háo
- Literal Translation: run about, call out, shout, cry
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4