吴市吹箫

wú shì chuī xiāo

(idiom) to beg on the streets; to fall into utter destitution (allusion to Wu Zixu's 伍子胥[Wu3 Zi3 xu1] exile and humiliation as described in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" 史記|史记[Shi3 ji4])

area comprising southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang and Shanghai

shì

market

chuī

to blow

xiāo

xiao, a vertical bamboo flute