樯倾楫摧
qiáng qīng jí cuī
masts toppled and oars broken: a ship wrecked by storm; (fig.) utter ruin
Character by character
樯qiáng
mast
mast
倾qīng
topples
topples
楫jí
oar
oar
摧cuī
breaks
breaks
Example
古人出海，一旦遇到台风，往往樯倾楫摧，船毁人亡。
When people went to sea in the old days and met a typhoon, masts would come down and oars snap, and ship and crew were lost.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
From 范仲淹’s 《岳阳楼记》 (1046), describing rain that lasts for months on Dongting Lake: 商旅不行，樯倾楫摧, “merchants and travellers stop, masts fall and oars break”. 樯 is a mast and 楫 an oar. Literary: used of shipwrecks and storms on water, and now and then of a business or plan that has collapsed.
Learn this in Lesson 176 · HSK 7–9: 南海一号 (The Nanhai No. 1 shipwreck)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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