📖 Meaning
To trace a matter back to its ultimate origin by thorough investigation. It describes digging relentlessly through layers of cause until the true root is reached, leaving no link unexamined.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase appears in the second chapter of the Qing-era novel '洪秀全演义' (The Romance of Hong Xiuquan), which dramatizes the Taiping Rebellion. In the cited passage, investigators examining the opium trade follow the trail back to its starting point and find that every shipment imported into China was actually being distributed by Chinese merchants. The idiom thus crystallizes the method of relentless backward tracing—following a chain of evidence to its very source.
💡 Example Usage
面对这场财务危机，审计组决定追本穷源，彻查每一笔账目的来龙去脉。
Faced with this financial crisis, the audit team decided to trace the matter to its root, thoroughly investigating the ins and outs of every account.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 追本穷源
- Pinyin: zhuī běn qióng yuán
- Literal Translation: pursue the root, exhaust the source
- Category: Method
- Characters: 4