Chinese idiom · 成语
枯木逢春
Meaning
Withered tree meets spring; revival after hardship.
Character by character
Origin and story
Religious literary narrativeA Dunhuang storytelling text, Lushan Yuan Gong Hua, compares the Buddhist teacher Huiyuan's renewed opportunity to preach to a withered tree beside a cliff encountering spring again. A second comparison follows: a fish released from a dried ditch back into rivers and seas. Bells sound, and the teacher again expounds the scriptures to an audience.
These are images of recovered vitality in a religious narrative, not a report of a literally dead tree returning to life. Later verse and drama use the compact phrase 枯木逢春 for renewed hope after deprivation, release from trouble, or an unexpectedly improved situation. Spring supplies the possibility that seemed to have disappeared.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
改成社区书店后，这家快倒闭的老店终于枯木逢春。
After becoming a community bookshop, the old shop that had nearly closed finally found new life.
Emphasizes renewed vitality after apparent decline or hopelessness.