故宫禾黍 — “A feeling of profound nostalgia”

故宫禾黍 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “a feeling of profound nostalgia”. Melancholy, or longing for a glorious past that has since fallen into ruin, or for one's homeland, inspired by seeing a scene of former grandeur now desolate and overgrown with crops. Literally, “Former palace, millet and sorghum”.

Frequency

故宫禾黍 Pronunciation and Pinyin

故宫禾黍 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
故	gù	9	therefore, old, or intentional
宫	gōng	9	palace
禾	hé	5	grain plant seedlings
黍	shǔ	12	broomcorn millet

Example Sentence with 故宫禾黍

他回到童年故居，看到往日的亭台楼阁已成一片荒芜，心中不禁生出故宫禾黍之感。

Upon returning to his childhood home, seeing the former pavilions and towers now desolate and overgrown, he couldn't help but feel a profound sense of nostalgia for what was lost.

Origin and Story of 故宫禾黍

It is said that after the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty, a high official of Zhou traveled a long distance to the former capital. Seeing the ancestral temples and palaces of the past turned into fields overgrown with millet and sorghum, he was deeply moved and sorrowful, composing the poem 'Shuli'.

Later, during his audience with King Zhou, Wei Ziqi passed by the ruins of Yin (the former Shang capital). Seeing the palaces destroyed and overgrown with millet and wheat, he felt immense sorrow and composed the song 'Maixiu'.