Surrounded on all sides

Another fun yojijukugo I learned recently from JapanesePod101.com is this phrase:

四面楚歌
shimensoka

According to JPod and other sources this means to be betrayed, surrounded on all sides, given up for and so on. In other words: you’re screwed.

But the history behind this phrase is pretty interesting to me. The phrase actually originates from ancient Chinese history after the Qin Dynasty fell and two states emerged to contend for power: the state of Chu (楚 in the phrase above) and the state of Han (漢). Initially, Chu was the stronger of the two and briefly held hegemony over China, but its military leader, Xiang Yu, made really bad political choices and created many enemies who flocked to the Han banner and before long, Chu was on the defensive and eventually was destroyed leading to the Han Dynasty.

The phrase above comes from the final major battle, when Xiang Yu was surrounded on all sides, and the Han army pretended to be Chu troops who had defected to the enemy by singing native Chu songs.¹ Xiang Yu fell for the trick and believed he had been abandoned and doomed.

Who knew that four little Chinese characters could mean so much?

¹ Which they learned from Chu troops who were captured and taught them how to sing in a native Chu accent.