Idiom Explanation:
行将就木：About to walk into a coffin, it means that the person has not lived long and is about to enter the coffin.
Pronunciation:
行将就木
xíng jiāng jiù mù
Origin:
《左传·僖公二十三年》：“将适齐，谓季隗曰：‘待我二十五年，不来而后嫁。’对曰：‘我二十五年矣，又如是而嫁，则就木焉。请待子。’”
Story:
At the beginning of Spring and Autumn Period, the state of Jin annexed some small neighboring vassal states and became a large state. At that time, the aged ruler of the state, Duke Xian of Jin, favored his concubine, Bor Ji, and planned to have her son on the throne in the future. He listened to Lixi’s bad words and forced Prince Shen Sheng to die. Lixi also framed Shen Sheng’s two half-brothers, Duke Chong Er and Yi Wu, so they had to flee. Chong Er fled to his fief, Pucheng, and the Jin soldiers came to hear about it. When the Jin soldiers came, they tried to resist, but Chong Er convinced them not to do so and fled to Di (his mother was from Di). He was accompanied by his uncle Fox Yan and Zhao Yao.
Di sent an army to attack a tribe and captured two sisters, Shu Kui and Ji Kui, and then gave them both to Chong Er. Chong Er married Ji Kui and had two children, Bo Leuc and Shu Liu; Shu Kui married Zhao Fei and they had a son, Zhao Dun, who played an important role in the history of Jin.
Later, bad news came secretly from Jin: the lord of Jin was going to send someone to assassinate Chong Er. It turned out that after the death of Duke Xian, Duke Yiwu, who had fled with Chong Er, returned to Jin to take the throne with the power of Qin, and was known as Duke Hui of Jin. Fearing that his elder brother Chong Er would return to the kingdom to fight for the throne, he sent assassins to murder Chong Er. When Chong Er learned this news, he decided to flee to Qi. The night before he left, he said to his wife Ji Kui, “Yiwu has sent someone to kill me, so I plan to flee to Qi again. You stay here and raise your children, and when I don’t return in twenty-five years, you will marry someone else.” Ji Kui replied sadly, “I am already twenty-five years old, and in another twenty-five years I will be in my coffin, so why marry someone else? I’ll be here waiting for you all the time.”
When Chong Er arrived in Qi, the Duke of Qi gave him a girl named Jiang to marry him and gave him twenty large carriages driven by four horses. Chong Er was content with this life, but the people who followed him thought that he should not stay here forever, and Jiang also thought that Chong Er should leave. After discussing with Fox Yan, she got him drunk and drove him out of Qi. The group went to Cao, Song, Zheng and Chu, but they were not accepted. Later, when they arrived at Qin, Duke Mu of Qin received them warmly and married their five daughters to Chong Er. When Yiwu fell ill and died, the Duke of Qin sent an army to escort Chong Er back to Jin to assume the throne, which was the Duke of Jin. When the Di people heard the news of the reign of Duke Wen of Jin, they sent Ji Kui back to him, and the couple was finally reunited.
Later, according to Ji Kui’s words, “I have been married for twenty-five years, and if I marry like this, I will be in the wood.” The idiom of “行将就木” was derived.
Similar Idioms:
- 奄奄一息
