📖 Meaning
Describes a person who drifts from place to place without a settled home, much like a broken twig carried by the wind or tumbleweed blown across the land. It conveys a sense of rootlessness and the hardship of a nomadic, unstable existence.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from a poem by the Song Dynasty poet Lu You (陆游), titled 'The Day Before the Examination Number Is Posted' (《拆号前一日作》). In the poem, Lu You laments his wandering life, writing that drifting and scattering is his lot wherever he goes, comparing himself to a broken stem and windblown tumbleweed. Lu You was a renowned patriotic poet who himself experienced displacement during the tumultuous Southern Song period. The phrase captures the melancholy of a life without roots or permanent settlement.
💡 Example Usage
这些年他断梗飞蓬，四处漂泊，终于在此安了家。
All these years he drifted like a broken stem and flying tumbleweed, wandering everywhere, and has finally settled down here.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 断梗飞蓬
- Pinyin: duàn gěng fēi péng
- Literal Translation: broken, stem, flying, tumbleweed
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4