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四面楚歌 (Sìmiànchǔgē)


Daimashin

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四面楚歌 (Sìmiànchǔgē) - Perils everywhere.

Literal meaning - Chu song from all sides.

During the infamous "出爾反爾" (Chū'ěrfǎn'ěr) event. Liu Bang ambushed Xiang Yu from the rear after signing the peace treaty between the two factions that ended the five year ChuHan Contention. Xiang Yu's army was severely defeated and had to retreat to a mountain. Because Xiang Yu's army still had high morale, so Han Xin asked his men to surround the area and started singing Chu songs to weaken Xiang Yu's army's morale. The songs made them miss their home very much and caused all of them to abandon camp and ran away. Xiang Yu faced with the songs and Han Xin's army felt that there was no hope left made it out with his last ounce of strength.

四面楚歌 (Sìmiànchǔgē) is used to describe a situation where everything bad happens around you.

Example:

"我被裁員, 老婆又進醫院,弟弟也欠人債。簡直是「四面楚歌」沒有出路."

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