📖 Meaning
Describes a place that is completely empty and silent, with not a single person present. It emphasizes both the physical emptiness and the profound stillness of a location, often evoking a sense of desolation or eerie quiet.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from volume four of Miscellany of Guangyang (《广阳杂记》) by Liu Xianting (刘献廷) of the Qing dynasty. In the text, the author recounts dreaming of a place where he saw a meditation couch, table, and staff lying desolate and untouched, yet the place was completely silent with no one around. The phrase captures the striking emptiness of that scene. It was later echoed in Jottings from the Yuewei Hermitage (《阅微草堂笔记》) by the Qing scholar Ji Yun (纪昀), where it describes entering a place over a wall to find it utterly deserted.
💡 Example Usage
夜深了，昔日热闹的集市阒无一人，只剩下寒风呼啸。
Late at night, the once-bustling market was utterly deserted, with no one in sight and only the howling of the cold wind remaining.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 阒无一人
- Pinyin: qù wú yī rén
- Literal Translation: quiet, without, one, person
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4