Crowded with visitors; hugely in demand
The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.
The minister Zou Ji noticed that everyone around him flattered his looks for reasons of their own, and used it to warn the King of Qi that he was surrounded by people with something to gain. The king invited open criticism and rewarded it. For months the palace gate was as crowded as a market.
Source: 《战国策》Strategies of the Warring States, c. 1st century BC
The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.
Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.
门庭若市 is pronounced mén tíng ruò shì and means crowded with visitors; hugely in demand. Literally it says "the courtyard like a marketplace" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《战国策》Strategies of the Warring States, c. 1st century BC. The minister Zou Ji noticed that everyone around him flattered his looks for reasons of their own, and used it to warn the King of Qi that he was surrounded by people with something to gain. The king invited open criticism and rewarded it. For months the palace gate was as crowded as a market.
mén tíng ruò shì. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.
门 (mén) Door (gate - know-how - category - mw for courses), 庭 (tíng) Courtyard (court - hall), 若 (ruò) If (be like - as - seem), 市 (shì) Market (city). These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the intermediate band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 门庭若市 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
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