📖 Meaning
The idiom literally means 'a shop that sells dried fish.' It is used as a metaphor for a desperate, hopeless situation that is already beyond rescue. When something or someone has reached this state, no amount of belated help can save it.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the Warring States period text Zhuangzi: Outer Things (《庄子·外物》). The Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi, in dire poverty, went to borrow grain from the Marquis of Jianhe (监河侯). The marquis made an empty promise, saying he would lend him money after collecting taxes from his fief. Angered, Zhuangzi replied with a parable: on the road he had seen a dying carp trapped in a dry cart rut, pleading for just a little water to survive. When Zhuangzi offered to fetch the waters of the West River instead, the carp bitterly replied that it only needed a single dipper of water to live, and that with such an answer the marquis might as well seek it early in the shop of dried fish.
💡 Example Usage
若不立即采取行动，公司将陷入枯鱼之肆。
If action is not taken immediately, the company will fall into a hopeless situation beyond rescue.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 枯鱼之肆
- Pinyin: kū yú zhī sì
- Literal Translation: dried, fish, of, shop
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4