📖 Meaning
Describes killing people in such vast numbers that they cannot be counted. It is a variant of the more common idiom 杀人如麻. The imagery compares slaughtered bodies to thick-growing mugwort weeds carpeting the ground.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is a variant of the well-known 杀人如麻, which appears in classical Chinese literature. The character 蒿 (hāo) refers to artemisia or mugwort, a common weed that grows abundantly and thickly. By comparing slain people to dense weeds, it conveys the sheer scale of slaughter. Historical texts used such expressions to depict brutal warfare, tyrannical rulers, or indiscriminate massacres that left bodies strewn across the land.
💡 Example Usage
这位暴君杀人如蒿，百姓纷纷逃离京城。
The tyrant killed people as thickly as weeds, and the common folk fled the capital in droves.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 杀人如蒿
- Pinyin: shā rén rú hāo
- Literal Translation: kill, people, like, artemisia
- Category: Power
- Characters: 4