📖 Meaning
To form a clique and cover for each other out of partiality and self-interest. It describes officials or associates who show favoritism to their own faction, protecting one another's misdeeds while neglecting the public good. Condemned as corrupt, self-serving behavior.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the Book of Han (汉书), in the biography of Zhuge Feng (诸葛丰), a famously stern and upright official of the Western Han dynasty under Emperor Yuan. In a memorial to the throne, he lamented that across the vast empire there was not a single minister willing to die for righteousness, and that officials instead sought only to curry favor and get along, forming cliques that shielded each other for private advantage while forgetting the state's affairs. His words survived as a lasting critique of factional self-protection in government.
💡 Example Usage
朝中大臣阿党相为，全然不顾百姓死活。
The ministers at court formed cliques to shield each other, caring nothing for the people's lives.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 阿党相为
- Pinyin: ē dǎng xiāng wéi
- Literal Translation: favor a faction, mutually, shield one another
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4