📖 Meaning
To call upon and gather followers to form a clique or faction. It describes people who recruit accomplices and band together, often for self-serving purposes. The term typically carries a negative connotation of forming self-interested groups.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Qing dynasty work 'Jin Hu Lang Mo' (金壶浪墨) by Huang Junzai (黄钧宰), in the chapter 'Pi Bing' (疲兵). The passage describes how, in early summer, soldiers from Chu raided the Thirteen Hongs — the famous Canton trading firms — in broad daylight, carrying off goods on their backs and shoulders. They called upon companions to form gangs, dispersing to various villages and remaining absent for days, with no one knowing what they were actually doing. The phrase thus depicts people recruiting followers and forming unruly factions.
💡 Example Usage
这伙人呼群结党，在乡里横行霸道，引起了百姓的强烈不满。
This gang banded together to form a faction, terrorizing the countryside and provoking intense resentment among the common people.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 呼群结党
- Pinyin: hū qún jié dǎng
- Literal Translation: call, crowd, form, faction
- Category: Power
- Characters: 4