吴市吹箫 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to beg on the streets; to fall into utter destitution (allusion to Wu Zixu's 伍子胥 (Wǔ Zǐ xū) exile and humiliation as described in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" 史记 (Shǐ jì))

Character by character

• 吴wúone of several warring states; surname
• 市shìcity, town; market, fair; to trade
• 吹chuīto blow, to puff; to brag, to boast
• 箫xiāobamboo flute

Idioms sharing a character

• 吴下阿蒙 Wú xià ā Méng
• 吴越同舟 Wú Yuè tóng zhōu
• 吴头楚尾 Wú tóu Chǔ wěi
• 偶语弃市 ǒu yǔ qì shì
• 招摇过市 zhāo yáo guò shì
• 有价无市 yǒu jià wú shì
• 欺行霸市 qī háng bà shì
• 海市蜃楼 hǎi shì shèn lóu
• 绑赴市曹 bǎng fù shì cáo
• 门庭若市 mén tíng ruò shì

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.