📖 Meaning
A wild goose flies off into the distant, dim sky. It metaphorically describes someone fleeing far away to escape danger or pursuit. The image conveys being completely out of reach, beyond capture.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Han dynasty work 'Fa Yan' (法言·问明) by the scholar Yang Xiong (扬雄). The full line reads, 'When the wild goose flies into the distant sky, how can the hunter snatch it?' The imagery likens a person escaping trouble to a wild goose soaring beyond an archer's range. It later became a classical metaphor for eluding capture by going into hiding far away.
💡 Example Usage
事败之后，他鸿飞冥冥，再无人能寻得其踪迹。
After his scheme fell through, he vanished like a wild goose into the distant sky, and no one could ever trace him again.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 鸿飞冥冥
- Pinyin: hóng fēi míng míng
- Literal Translation: wild goose, fly, distant sky, distant sky
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4