📖 Meaning
Having no basis or support whether advancing or retreating. It describes being unable to find a place for oneself, or being caught in a dilemma with no good option. It is a variant of the more common idiom 进退无据.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom lacks a single definitive textual source and is generally treated as a variant of the more frequently attested phrase 进退无据, which expresses the same idea of having lost one's footing in either direction. The character 亡 functions here in its classical sense of 'to lose' or 'to be without,' equivalent to 无. Such expressions grew out of the broader classical Chinese vocabulary for predicaments of position and legitimacy, commonly discussed in dynastic histories and philosophical texts when describing officials, armies, or rulers who had no defensible course of action left.
💡 Example Usage
敌军陷入重围，进退亡据，只得缴械投降。
Surrounded on all sides, the enemy troops had nowhere to advance or retreat and could only surrender their weapons.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 进退亡据
- Pinyin: jìn tuì wáng jù
- Literal Translation: advance, retreat, lose, basis
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4