📖 Meaning
To dodge a pit only to fall into a well. It is a metaphor for escaping one harm or danger, only to suffer another, often worse, one. The idiom criticizes actions meant to avert trouble that instead bring about new misfortune.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Biography of Chu Xie in the Book of Jin (《晋书·褚翜传》), compiled during the Tang Dynasty but recording events of the Eastern Jin period. Chu Xie urged his colleagues to unite against bandit threats, warning that internal strife among themselves while no external enemy pressed them would be like 'avoiding a pit only to fall into a well' — escaping one harm only to incur a worse one. The metaphor condemns those who, in trying to evade a danger, take actions that plunge them into an even greater disaster.
💡 Example Usage
他刚躲过一场骗局，又落入另一个陷阱，真是避坑落井。
He had just escaped one scam, only to fall into another trap — truly dodging a pit and landing in a well.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 避坑落井
- Pinyin: bì kēng luò jǐng
- Literal Translation: avoid, pit, fall into, well
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4