📖 Meaning
A fish swimming in a cauldron and a swallow nesting on a suspended curtain. It is a metaphor for someone living in an extremely precarious and imperiled situation, unaware of the imminent danger. The image conveys how fragile one's safety is when the very foundation beneath them could give way at any moment.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase originates from a famous letter written by Qiu Chi of the Liang Dynasty (Southern Dynasties) to the general Chen Bozhi, urging him to surrender to the Liang court. Qiu Chi wrote, 'Your generalship is like a fish swimming in a boiling cauldron, or a swallow nesting on a fluttering curtain—is this not folly?' The vivid imagery was meant to warn Chen Bozhi that his current allegiance placed him in mortal peril. The letter is celebrated as a masterpiece of Classical Chinese persuasive prose. Over time, '釜鱼幕燕' became a fixed idiom denoting a gravely insecure处境.
💡 Example Usage
大厦将倾，众人犹自歌舞，恰似釜鱼幕燕，不知死期将至。
The mansion was about to collapse, yet the crowd still sang and danced—like a fish in a cauldron and a swallow on a curtain, oblivious that their end was near.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 釜鱼幕燕
- Pinyin: fǔ yú mù yàn
- Literal Translation: cauldron, fish, curtain, swallow
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4