📖 Meaning
To wander aimlessly across the world without a fixed home. '浪迹' means to roam leaving tracks, while '江湖' (rivers and lakes) figuratively refers to everywhere in the world. It describes a life of drifting from place to place with no settled abode.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom traces to the Song Dynasty compendium 'Yunji Qiqian' (云笈七签) compiled by Zhang Junfang, where in volume 113 a figure declares he cannot resign himself to cold and hardship and would rather roam the world. It later gained wider currency through Ming vernacular fiction such as Ling Mengchu's 'Slapping the Table in Amazement' (二刻拍案惊奇), where it depicts a scholar reduced to rootless wandering. The phrase evokes the image of someone drifting among rivers and lakes with no fixed destination.
💡 Example Usage
辞官之后，他浪迹江湖，再无音讯。
After resigning his official post, he wandered the world and was never heard from again.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 浪迹江湖
- Pinyin: làng jì jiāng hú
- Literal Translation: wander, tracks, rivers, lakes
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4