Tā dǔbó chéng yǐn, zuìzhōng luò de qīlízǐsàn de xiàchǎng.
His gambling addiction ultimately left him with a broken and scattered family.
Tips
history
Rooted in Mencius (《孟子·梁惠王上》): 父母冻饿，兄弟妻子离散 — describing the suffering of the people under tyrannical rule. The idiom distilled from this passage became a standard image of catastrophic social collapse.
usage
Strong emotional weight — reserve for serious contexts like war, disaster, or ruin. Often paired with 家破人亡 (home destroyed, people dead) for maximum tragic impact.
