📖 Meaning
To entreat and beg everywhere, going around to various people to plead for help or favors. It describes someone who exhaustively solicits assistance from all quarters, often in an anxious or importunate manner.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom appears in Chapter 84 of 《歧路灯》 (The Lamp at the Crossroads), a novel written by the Qing dynasty author Li Lüyuan during the Qianlong reign. In the passage, the servant Wang Xiangjin, acting on his mistress's orders and following the rules of Master Cheng, 'begs east and entreats west' — going around everywhere asking the property brokers to find a buyer for the estate. The 'east... west...' framing conveys the sense of 'here and there, everywhere,' so the phrase describes going about pleading with people in all directions. It has since come to mean entreating and soliciting favors from various quarters.
💡 Example Usage
为了孩子上学的事，他东央西浼，四处求人帮忙。
To get his child into school, he went around entreating everyone, begging for help wherever he could.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 东央西浼
- Pinyin: dōng yāng xī měi
- Literal Translation: east, entreat, west, beseech
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4