📖 Meaning
A metaphor for two people who were once close parting ways, drawn from the image of wild geese scattering from their orderly flying formation. It describes the sorrow of separation between spouses, friends, or family members. The idiom emphasizes the inevitability and regret of two formerly united parties going their separate directions.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom comes from the Qing dynasty (清) writer Pu Songling's (蒲松龄) classical short-story collection Liaozhai Zhiyi (聊斋志异), in the tale "Ma Jiefu" (马介甫). In this story a meek husband is tormented by his cruel, domineering wife, and the family descends into disorder as the couple is torn apart. The original text reads "甚而雁影纷飞，涕空沾于荆树" — geese flying in formation symbolize togetherness, so their scattered flight moving in opposite directions pictures the couple's separation. Though the source text uses 纷飞 (scattered flying), the later standardized form 雁影分飞 came to mean simply "two parties parting".
💡 Example Usage
多年的好友如今雁影分飞，令人唏嘘不已。
The friends of many years have now parted ways like wild geese scattering, truly a lamentable sight.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 雁影分飞
- Pinyin: yàn yǐng fēn fēi
- Literal Translation: wild goose, shadow, separate, fly
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4