📖 Meaning
A candle flickering in the wind. It is a metaphor for an elderly person whose life could end at any moment, or for anything on the verge of imminent extinction. The image evokes fragility and impermanence in the face of outside forces.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase traces back to the Jin dynasty calligrapher Wang Xizhi, who in a postscript to 'Lady Wei's Battle Formation Diagram' wrote that at fifty-three he feared his life might be snuffed out like a candle in the wind, and so he wished to leave teachings for his descendants. The metaphor of a wind-blown candle thus came to symbolize fragile, impermanent life—especially that of the old and ailing. Over the centuries it became a common literary image for mortality and precarious existence.
💡 Example Usage
年近七旬的他如风中之烛，朝夕难保。
Nearly seventy years old, he is like a candle in the wind—his life could end at any moment.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 风中之烛
- Pinyin: fēng zhōng zhī zhú
- Literal Translation: wind, middle, of, candle
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4