📖 Meaning
To form cliques and gather into factions. It refers to people with similar interests or agendas banding together into small exclusive groups, often for mutual benefit or influence.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom appears in 'Chuke Pai'an Jingqi' (初刻拍案惊奇), a celebrated collection of vernacular short stories compiled by the Ming Dynasty writer Ling Mengchu. The text describes groups of like-minded individuals who gather together as if they were brothers, forming close-knit circles. The phrase captures the social dynamic of people with shared sentiments or ambitions organizing themselves into factions, a phenomenon commonly observed in both political and social life throughout Chinese history.
💡 Example Usage
那些人成群集党，在乡里横行霸道，欺压百姓。
Those people formed cliques and ran rampant through the countryside, oppressing the common folk.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 成群集党
- Pinyin: chéng qún jí dǎng
- Literal Translation: form, group, gather, faction
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4