📖 Meaning
Shoulders rub together and heels follow one another in close succession. It describes a place so crowded with people that they are packed tightly shoulder to shoulder. The idiom conveys a scene of dense, bustling crowds.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom draws from two classical sources. The 'Zhan Guo Ce' (Strategies of the Warring States) describes the roads of Linzi, capital of Qi, where carriage hubs struck each other and people's shoulders rubbed in the throng. The 'Song Shi' (History of Song) records that when the general Li Xianzhong entered a captured city and proclaimed benevolent policies without executing a single person, people of the Central Plains flocked to submit, arriving heel to heel in unbroken streams. Together these images formed the four-character idiom denoting overwhelming crowding.
💡 Example Usage
每逢庙会，镇上的街道肩摩踵接，热闹非凡。
During the temple fair, the town's streets were packed shoulder to shoulder with people, extraordinarily lively.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 肩摩踵接
- Pinyin: jiān mó zhǒng jiē
- Literal Translation: shoulder, rub, heel, connect
- Category: Status
- Characters: 4