众志成城
- Literal
- the will of the many makes a city wall
- Figurative
- Many people united like a wall nothing can breach; more solemn than 齐心协力, it is usually said in the face of a disaster or a shared threat.
Where does 众志成城 come from?
It comes from the 《国语》. King Jing of Zhou had a great bell cast even though his advisers, among them the court musician Zhou Jiu, urged him not to. When the bell was finished, the musicians told the king it sounded harmonious, and he mentioned this to Zhou Jiu. Zhou Jiu replied that he could not tell whether it was, since the project had emptied the treasury and worn out the people, and he quoted a saying: "Many hearts make a city wall; many mouths melt metal." From it, with 志 in place of 心, came the idiom. Today it is heard in calls for unity in the face of floods, earthquakes or epidemics.
Source (出处): 《国语·周语下》
How is 众志成城 used? Two examples
- 台风来袭,全市众志成城,一夜之间转移了上万名群众。
When the typhoon struck, the whole city stood together and evacuated more than ten thousand people overnight.
- 公司最难的那一年,大家众志成城,没有一个人离开。
In the company's hardest year, everyone closed ranks against the crisis and not a single person left.