Chinese idiom · 成语

来龙去脉

lái lóng qù mài

Meaning

Dragon’s coming, vein’s going; full context.

Character by character

来coming

龙dragon

去going

脉vein

Origin and story

Traditional terminology

This phrase began in the vocabulary of traditional geomancy, where connected landforms were described through images of dragons and veins. The Ministry of Education dictionary tentatively identifies a literary source in scene 13 of the Ming play Yun Pi Ji. An elderly villager claims knowledge of geomancy and points out a site whose surrounding ridges and hills supposedly promise prosperity.

That is a character's geomantic assessment, not evidence that a burial site's shape determines fortune. From tracing the continuity and direction of terrain, the idiom came to mean tracing an event from its beginnings through its development and outcome. It asks for the whole connected account, rather than an isolated detail.

Sources and further reading

MOE Dictionary of Idioms: 来龙去脉

In everyday life

我只看到群里的最后几条消息，还不清楚事情的来龙去脉。

Wǒ zhǐ kàn dào qún lǐ de zuì hòu jǐ tiáo xiāo xi, hái bù qīng chu shì qing de lái lóng qù mài.

I've only seen the last few group messages, so I still don't know the full story.

Refers to the origins, sequence, and context of a situation.