📖 Meaning
Originally referred to the sorrowful, yearning music of a state on the verge of collapse, reflecting its people's distress. In later usage it denotes decadent, morally corrupt songs that portend national decline.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the 'Record of Music' chapter of the Book of Rites (礼记·乐记), a foundational text of the Zhou dynasty compiled during the Han period. It states that the music of a doomed state is sorrowful and full of longing because its people suffer. The same chapter identifies the music of Sangjian and Pushang as such 'music of a perishing state,' noting that its government is fractured and its people drift. The historian Sima Qian later echoed the same wording in the Records of the Grand Historian (史记·乐书).
💡 Example Usage
这类歌曲颓废不堪，听多了宛如亡国之音。
These songs are so decadent that listening to them feels like hearing the music of a dying state.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 亡国之音
- Pinyin: wáng guó zhī yīn
- Literal Translation: perishing, state, 's, sound
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4