📖 Meaning
Refers to domestic unrest and foreign aggression simultaneously besetting a nation. Sometimes used metaphorically to describe an individual facing troubles both from within and without. Essentially synonymous with 内忧外患.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from Cai Dongfan's historical novel 'Romance of the Two Jin Dynasties' (两晋演义), Chapter 99. The passage describes the Later Qin dynasty (后秦), founded by the Yao clan, which held the Guanzhong region for thirty-two years. The text invokes the metaphor of beans cooking each other in a pot (豆釜相煎, from Cao Zhi's famous seven-step poem) to depict fratricidal internal strife within the ruling family. Combined with mounting external threats that gradually eroded the state, these twin pressures of internal chaos and foreign aggression ultimately led to the collapse of the Yao dynasty.
💡 Example Usage
面对内忧外侮，国家必须团结一心才能渡过难关。
Facing internal turmoil and external aggression, the nation must unite as one to weather the crisis.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 内忧外侮
- Pinyin: nèi yōu wài wǔ
- Literal Translation: internal, worry, external, insult
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4