📖 Meaning
Describes a crowd of people gathered together in a chaotic, swarming manner, like a cluster of bees or a colony of ants. It conveys a scene of dense, disorderly congregation. The idiom is interchangeable with the variant 蜂屯蚁聚.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Ming dynasty novel Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms (东周列国志) by Feng Menglong, in its thirty-third chapter. It describes the moment when the entourage following the King of Chu—numbering over a thousand people—stripped off their outer garments to reveal armor beneath, each grasping concealed weapons, and surged onto the ceremonial platform in a swarming rush. A later usage appears in the Qing dynasty novel Romance of the Tang (说唐), where it depicts a crowded street scene.
💡 Example Usage
每到赶集之日，四方百姓蜂攒蚁聚，热闹非凡。
On market days, people from all directions swarmed together like bees and ants, creating an extraordinarily lively scene.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 蜂攒蚁聚
- Pinyin: fēng cuán yǐ jù
- Literal Translation: bees, cluster, ants, gather
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4