📖 Meaning
Literally 'nine out of ten households are impoverished.' It describes a scene of widespread poverty among common people caused by natural disasters, war, or social upheaval. The idiom conveys the devastating economic toll such hardships inflict on ordinary families.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Song dynasty historian Ouyang Xiu's 'New Book of Tang' (新唐书), in the section 'Biographies of the Western Regions: Gaochang.' The passage recounts how after the Tang court launched military campaigns to conquer the Gaochang kingdom, the Hexi region was forced to supply provisions and labor for the royal army. The burden was so crushing that nine out of ten households fell into destitution, and it was said the region would not recover even within five years. The phrase thus depicts the ruinous economic cost of war borne by ordinary people.
💡 Example Usage
连年战乱使得这片土地十室九匮，百姓生活十分艰难。
Years of continual warfare left this land so devastated that nine out of ten households were impoverished, and the people's lives became extremely difficult.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 十室九匮
- Pinyin: shí shì jiǔ kuì
- Literal Translation: ten, households, nine, depleted
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4