📖 Meaning
When woodboring insects multiply, the infested timber will eventually snap. It is a metaphor showing that when harmful factors accumulate, they bring about disaster. The idiom warns that small accumulating damages lead to ruin.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Book of Lord Shang (《商君书》), chapter 'Cultivation of Power' (修权), written by the Legalist statesman Shang Yang of the Warring States period. The full passage reads 'When woodborers are numerous, the wood breaks; when cracks are large, the wall collapses.' Shang Yang used this analogy to argue that corruption and misconduct within a state, if left unchecked and allowed to multiply, would ultimately destroy the state from within, just as insects destroy timber from within.
💡 Example Usage
公司内部腐败横行，蠹众木折，最终走向了破产。
Corruption ran rampant within the company; with harmful forces multiplying, it ultimately went bankrupt.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 蠹众木折
- Pinyin: dù zhòng mù zhé
- Literal Translation: woodborers, numerous, wood, breaks
- Category: Philosophy
- Characters: 4