📖 Meaning
An idiom describing a scene where a great number of people are gathered together in a confused, disorderly mass. It conveys both the sheer multitude of the crowd and the chaotic, jostling commotion of its movement. It is most often used for throngs of people rushing about, such as refugees or shoppers.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from a Ming dynasty story collection, 'Stories to Enlighten the World' (喻世明言) by the writer Feng Menglong, in chapter eighteen. In the tale, the merchant Yang Bala looks out and sees the common folk of the countryside streaming toward the city in a panicked, disorderly crowd to flee from danger. The narrator describes this throng as '纷纷攘攘' — numerous and chaotic. The line has since been quoted as the classical source of the idiom.
💡 Example Usage
集市上纷纷攘攘，挤满了前来赶集的百姓。
The marketplace was a chaotic throng, packed with country folk who had come for the fair.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 纷纷攘攘
- Pinyin: fēn fēn rǎng rǎng
- Literal Translation: fluttering and numerous, noisy and disorderly
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4