📖 Meaning
Describes breathing that is extremely weak, as if the person is about to draw their last breath. It is also used metaphorically to describe a thing, institution, or cause that has declined to the point of near collapse and impending extinction.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from 'Chen Qing Biao' (Petition Expressing My Feelings), a memorial written by Li Mi of the Western Jin dynasty to Emperor Wu of Jin. Li Mi had been summoned to take up an official post, but he declined, explaining that his grandmother Liu was elderly and gravely ill. In the memorial he wrote that her life was like the setting sun, her breathing faint and feeble, her days numbered, and that she might not survive from one morning to the next evening. The image of feeble, dying breath was later extracted as the idiom '气息奄奄'.
💡 Example Usage
经过长期重病折磨，老人已气息奄奄，随时可能离去。
After a long battle with severe illness, the old man's breathing had grown faint and feeble, and he could pass away at any moment.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 气息奄奄
- Pinyin: qì xī yān yān
- Literal Translation: breath, feeble, faint
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4