







班荆道故 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “Old friends meeting unexpectedly on the road and sitting down”. Perhaps on makeshift seats like branches or grass, to reminisce about past times and catch up on each other's lives. Literally, “spread thorn branches and talk about old times”.
During the Spring and Autumn period, Wu Can of Chu and Zi Chao of Cai were close friends. Their sons, Wu Ju and Sheng Zi, also shared a deep friendship.
Wu Ju had to flee to the outskirts of the Zheng capital because his father-in-law, Prince Bian, had committed a crime. It was there that he met Sheng Zi.
Upon their unexpected reunion, they immediately pulled up thorn branches from the roadside, spread them on the ground, and sat opposite each other to pour out their hearts and reminisce about their past.
Sheng Zi later successfully helped Wu Ju clear his name.

Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →
Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →
Choose character parts and animate their colors, together or in stroke order
Open the tool →
Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →班荆道故 (bān jīng dào gù) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “Old friends meeting unexpectedly on the road and sitting down”.
班荆道故 is pronounced bān jīng dào gù in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 班荆道故 means “spread thorn branches and talk about old times”. It is used to mean “Old friends meeting unexpectedly on the road and sitting down”.
班荆道故 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
班:铺开;道:叙说。用荆铺在地上坐在上面谈说过去的事情。形容老朋友在路上碰到了,坐下来谈谈别后的情况。