📖 Meaning
This idiom uses a decaying stump and a dead tree as metaphors for weakened or useless power, often referring to aging individuals who have outlived their usefulness. It conveys a sense of decay, decline, and irrelevance. A close variant of the more common form 枯木朽株.
📜 Origin Story
The expression derives from the classical metaphor of a decayed tree stump and withered trunk standing lifeless in the ground. Similar imagery appears in early Chinese literature where aged, useless objects represent people or forces that have lost their vitality. The variant form places emphasis on the rotting stump alongside the dead wood. It shares the same figurative lineage as the more frequently encountered 枯木朽株.
💡 Example Usage
这些老臣们已然成了朽株枯木，再难为国家效力了。
These aged officials have become like rotten stumps and dead trees, no longer able to serve the state.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 朽株枯木
- Pinyin: xiǔ zhū kū mù
- Literal Translation: rotten stump, dead tree
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4