









从天而降 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to appear suddenly and unexpectedly, as if dropping from the sky”. To come out of nowhere. Literally, “To descend from the sky; to drop from the sky”.
In the early Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Jing, heeding Emperor Wen's advice, highly regarded Zhou Yafu, the son of the renowned general Zhou Bo, and tasked him with leading an army to quell the Rebellion of the Seven States, involving Wu, Chu, and other vassal states.
Zhou Yafu, trusting Zhao She's strategic advice, dispatched his troops along a less-traveled path to advance towards Luoyang, while simultaneously cutting off the rebel forces' grain supply routes. Faced with this Han army that seemed to have descended from the sky, the rebel forces were utterly routed.
For his meritorious service in suppressing the rebellion, Zhou Yafu was eventually promoted to Prime Minister.

Picture and word Bingo for your class
Open the tool →
Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →
Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →
Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →从天而降 (cóng tiān ér jiàng) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to appear suddenly and unexpectedly, as if dropping from the sky”.
从天而降 is pronounced cóng tiān ér jiàng in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 从天而降 means “to descend from the sky; to drop from the sky”. It is used to mean “to appear suddenly and unexpectedly, as if dropping from the sky”.
从天而降 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
降:下落。比喻出于意外,突然出现。