Chinese idiom · 成语
折戟沉沙
Meaning
A broken halberd buried in sand; a crushing defeat or serious failure.
Character by character
Origin and story
Poetic expressionDu Mu's Tang-dynasty poem Red Cliff opens with a broken halberd buried in sand, its iron not yet entirely corroded. The speaker cleans the weapon and recognizes a relic of an earlier age. That small object leads him to reflect on the much earlier battle associated with Red Cliff.
The poem then imagines how the outcome might have differed without a favorable east wind for Zhou Yu. This is poetic reflection, not an eyewitness account of the battle or archaeological proof about a particular weapon. The ruined halberd became a striking image of defeat, and the idiom can now describe a serious failure in competition or an undertaking.
In everyday life
这支夺冠热门在小组赛就折戟沉沙，连晋级的机会都没拿到。
This title favorite suffered a crushing defeat in the group stage and did not even qualify for the next round.
A literary way to describe a serious defeat; stronger than an ordinary minor setback.