📖 Meaning
To be displaced and forced to wander from place to place, repeatedly relocating due to war, disaster, or hardship. It describes the plight of people who have lost their homes and must continually move. It is a variant of the idiom 流离播越.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom has no single definitive origin story but combines two classical terms: 流离, meaning to wander destitute, and 播迁, meaning to relocate repeatedly. Both terms appear throughout Chinese historical texts describing populations uprooted by war and political upheaval. The compound reflects a recurring theme in Chinese history, where dynastic collapse and invasion forced common people into long periods of forced migration.
💡 Example Usage
战乱中百姓流离播迁，苦不堪言。
Amid the chaos of war, the common people were displaced and forced to wander, suffering unspeakable hardship.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 流离播迁
- Pinyin: liú lí bō qiān
- Literal Translation: wander, depart, scatter, migrate
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4