📖 Meaning
Describes two people who feel they should have met far earlier because they hit it off at once and share remarkably similar temperaments and aspirations. It conveys instant, deep mutual resonance, as if they were old friends from the very first acquaintance. The idiom is commonly used when kindred spirits finally cross paths.
📜 Origin Story
相逢恨晚 itself has no independent recorded origin; it is a variant of the more established idiom 相见恨晚. The root expression first appears in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (《史记》), in the biography of the Western Han scholar Zhufu Yan (主父偃). During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty (汉武帝), Zhufu Yan and two companions presented memorials on state affairs, and after summoning them to court the emperor lamented, 'Why did I meet you all so late!' (公等皆安在？何相见之晚也！). The phrase was later used to express regret at meeting a kindred spirit too late.
💡 Example Usage
与他相识于书店，我顿觉相逢恨晚。
Having come to know him at the bookstore, I suddenly felt it was a pity we had not met long ago.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 相逢恨晚
- Pinyin: xiāng féng hèn wǎn
- Literal Translation: meet each other, regret, late
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4