📖 Meaning
A metaphor for how chance fortune leads people to vastly different destinies of wealth or poverty. It also often refers to a woman falling into a life of degradation or prostitution, her fate determined by circumstance rather than merit.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Book of Liang (梁书), in the biography of the scholar Fan Zhen (范缜). Prince Xiao Ziliang of Jingling (竟陵王萧子良) asked Fan Zhen: if he did not believe in karma, why were some people rich and others poor? Fan Zhen replied that people's lives are like flowers on a tree, all blooming on the same branch and stem, yet when they fall with the wind some drift through curtains onto fine cushions while others drop beside a dung pit by a fence. The flower on the cushion, he said, is Your Highness; the one in the dung is the commoner. This illustrated that wealth and poverty arise from chance, not karmic reward.
💡 Example Usage
人生如飘茵堕溷，富贵贫贱往往取决于际遇而非努力。
Life is like drifting onto a cushion or falling into a cesspit; wealth and poverty often depend on chance circumstance rather than effort.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 飘茵堕溷
- Pinyin: piāo yīn duò hùn
- Literal Translation: drift onto a cushion, fall into a cesspit
- Category: Status
- Characters: 4