废墟

• Pinyin: fèi xū
• Hanzi breakdown: 废 = 广 + 发 (abandoned structure — destroyed, discarded); 墟 = 土 + 虚 (earth + empty/hollow — an empty mound of earth; desolate ruins)

Meaning

Ruins; rubble; the remains of a destroyed structure or settlement.

Describes the physical remains of buildings or cities destroyed by war, natural disaster, or the passage of time. Often carries strong literary and emotional connotations of loss, history, and the passage of civilisation. Common in historical, literary, and journalistic contexts.

Examples

1. 考古队在这片绵延数公里的废墟下发掘出了保存相对完好的古代城市遗址，出土文物的年代可追溯至公元前两千年前后的青铜时代早期。 Beneath these ruins stretching several kilometers, the archaeological team unearthed relatively well-preserved remains of an ancient city, with artifacts dating back to the early Bronze Age around 2000 BCE.
2. 战后重建团队在弹痕密布的废墟中艰难作业，试图在保留历史遗存的前提下尽快恢复这座城市基本的居住功能和公共服务体系。 After the war, the reconstruction team worked with difficulty amid ruins scarred with bullet holes, trying to restore the city’s basic living functions and public services as quickly as possible while preserving its historical remains.
3. 她在废墟清理现场的碎砖瓦砾中发现了一枚锈迹斑斑的铜制勋章，背面镌刻的名字令她意识到这是她祖父在这场战役中阵亡的有力证据。 Amid the broken bricks and rubble at the cleanup site, she found a rusted copper medal; the name engraved on the back made her realize it was strong evidence that her grandfather had been killed in that battle.

Usage Guide

Context: history, literature, journalism, archaeology

Tone: solemn

Do Say

• 这座曾在十九世纪末叶盛极一时的工业重镇，如今只剩下连绵数公里锈蚀坍塌的厂房废墟，无声地诉说着一个工业时代的兴衰荣辱与历史沧桑。(This industrial town, which was at its peak at the end of the nineteenth century, now has only kilometres of rusted, collapsed factory ruins, silently recounting the rise and fall, and the vicissitudes of history, of an industrial era.)
• 在废墟之上重建家园不仅是一项工程任务，更是一场关于集体记忆、文化认同与社区韧性的深刻社会实践，其难度和复杂程度远超单纯的物质重建。(Rebuilding a home upon ruins is not only an engineering task but also a profound social practice concerning collective memory, cultural identity, and community resilience — its difficulty and complexity far exceeds that of purely physical reconstruction.)

Don't Say

• 废墟 for minor damage or disrepair — do not say 这个房间是废墟 for a messy room; 废墟 refers to genuinely destroyed or collapsed structures; for disorder, use 一片狼藉 or 杂乱不堪

Origin & History

废 (abandoned; destroyed) + 墟 (ruins; empty mound; desolate place) — the remains of a destroyed or abandoned place

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal