Situations
風前燈火
풍전등화
fēng qián dēng huǒ
Pung-jeon-deung-hwa
風
바람 풍
前
앞 전
燈
등 등
火
불 화
Character by character
Meaning
A lamp flame before the wind — an extremely precarious state.
Origin
A simile used in Buddhist texts and classical poetry for a life or fate hanging by a thread.
How it is used
Used for a crisis where survival itself is at stake.
Hanja風前燈火
Simplified风前灯火
Korean reading풍전등화
Pinyinfēng qián dēng huǒ
Frequently asked questions
Q. What does Pung-jeon-deung-hwa mean?
風前燈火 · A lamp flame before the wind — an extremely precarious state.
Q. Where does Pung-jeon-deung-hwa come from?
A simile used in Buddhist texts and classical poetry for a life or fate hanging by a thread.
Q. How is Pung-jeon-deung-hwa used?
Used for a crisis where survival itself is at stake.
Idioms in the same group
四面楚歌 Sa-myeon-cho-gaChu songs on all four sides — surrounded with nowhere to turn.進退兩難 Jin-toe-yang-nanHard to advance and hard to retreat.累卵之危 Nu-ran-ji-wiAs precarious as a stack of eggs.五里霧中 O-ri-mu-jungInside a fog five li deep — completely unable to make sense of things.雪上加霜 Seol-sang-ga-sangFrost on top of snow — one misfortune stacked on another.轉禍爲福 Jeon-hwa-wi-bokDisaster turned into good fortune.
The idioms used in Korea mix phrases from the Chinese classics with ones coined in Korea. Where an expression is not used in China, the entry says so.