📖 Meaning
Like wind and clouds dispersing and drifting away. It is a metaphor for people, things, or once-flourishing scenes scattering and vanishing without a trace. Often used to describe the breakup of gatherings, groups, or prosperity.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom traces to a poem by Wang Can (王粲), a scholar-official of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period (220–265 AD). In his poem 'To Cai Zidu' (《赠蔡子笃》), he wrote '风流云散，一别如雨' — 'Like wind and clouds scattering, parting like rain' — lamenting how friends drifted apart, unlikely to meet again. Over the centuries the characters were reordered into 云散风流, and its sense broadened from parting of friends to the general dispersal and disappearance of things.
💡 Example Usage
昔日繁华的集市，如今已云散风流，只剩几间破屋。
The once-bustling marketplace has scattered like wind and clouds, leaving only a few broken houses behind.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 云散风流
- Pinyin: yún sàn fēng liú
- Literal Translation: clouds, scatter, wind, flow
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4