📖 Meaning
To call up friends and invite companions, gathering together people who share one's temperament and interests. It often describes assembling a group of like-minded acquaintances for an outing or activity, and can carry a faintly critical tone of cliquishness or seeking out one's own crowd.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from the Qing dynasty folk-song anthology Baixue Yiyin, compiled by Hua Guangsheng during the Jiaqing era. In the Mataiao tune 'Guang Yaozi,' the lyric runs, 'Calling friends and summoning companions, they enter the brothel; once inside the bewitching place, they are offered tobacco and tea with great attentiveness.' The line depicts a group of men noisily rounding up their cronies for a visit to a pleasure quarter. From this scene the expression spread into general use for summoning one's own circle of friends.
💡 Example Usage
他一发财就呼朋唤友，整日吃喝玩乐。
As soon as he got rich, he called up his friends and spent every day eating, drinking, and making merry.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 呼朋唤友
- Pinyin: hū péng huàn yǒu
- Literal Translation: call friends, summon companions
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4