📖 Meaning
To be forced to leave one's homeland and wander in a foreign place, destitute and displaced. It describes someone who has lost their home and must drift through unfamiliar lands, often enduring hardship and loneliness.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Song Dynasty text 'Wudeng Huiyuan' (Compendium of the Five Lamps), compiled by the monk Puji. The original passage describes a person who abandons their father and flees, wandering destitute in foreign lands, bumping into things aimlessly while lamenting their suffering with a prayer to Amitabha. The phrase vividly portrays the misery of being separated from one's roots and cast adrift in an alien place.
💡 Example Usage
战乱让他流落他乡，多年后才得以重返故里。
The war forced him to wander destitute in a foreign land, and it was many years before he could finally return to his hometown.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 流落他乡
- Pinyin: liú luò tā xiāng
- Literal Translation: flow, fall, other, village
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4