安然无恙
- Literal
- at ease and without ailment
- Figurative
- To come through danger safe and sound, with no harm done; it is also said of things that come out undamaged.
Where does 安然无恙 come from?
The key word is 恙, which in classical Chinese means "ailment" or "harm." Asking after someone's 无恙 was an old form of greeting, and it appears that way in the Strategies of the Warring States: when an envoy arrives from the state of Qi, the dowager queen of Zhao, before opening the letter, asks first whether the harvest is free of harm, then whether the people are, and only last whether the king is. The envoy takes offense at the order, and she answers that without a harvest there are no people, and without people there is no king. From that courtesy formula came the idiom, used today to say that someone came through unharmed.
Source (出处): 《战国策》
How is 安然无恙 used? Two examples
- 车子撞得不轻，好在人安然无恙。
The car took a bad hit, but luckily everyone came out without a scratch.
- 听说你出差遇上台风，安然无恙就好。
I heard a typhoon caught you on your business trip — as long as you're safe, that's what matters.
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