📖 Meaning
People arrive one after another in continuous succession, each person's heels following close behind the previous. It describes a steady stream of visitors or events coming without interruption, indicating a large and unbroken flow.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase traces to the 'Zhan Guo Ce' (Strategies of the Warring States), in the chapter on the state of Qi, compiled during the Han dynasty from earlier Warring States materials. The King of Qi remarks to his minister that true scholars are so rare that one appears only every thousand miles and a sage only once in a hundred generations, yet if they did come they would arrive 'following one upon another's heels' (随踵而至). When the minister presented seven worthy scholars in a single audience, the king expressed astonishment at their apparent abundance, using the image of heels following in close succession to describe a continuous, crowded arrival.
💡 Example Usage
招聘启事发布后，求职信接踵而至。
After the job posting was published, applications arrived one after another in an endless stream.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 接踵而至
- Pinyin: jiē zhǒng ér zhì
- Literal Translation: follow, heel, and, arrive
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4