A Walking Corpse

Characters:

Pronunciation: xing(2) shi(1) zou(3) rou(4)

Explanation: This describes a corpse that can walk or a body without a soul. It is a metaphor to say someone lives a very passive lifestyle.

Tone: Neutral

The Story: In the East Han Dynasty, there was a man named Ren Mo. He believed if a person wanted to succeed, the first thing to do is study hard. When Ren Mo was 14 years old, he could not find a teacher, and so he had to travel with his bookcase in order to find a proper teacher. He kept on studying along the way, and he used sticks as pens and ground as paper. At night, he read in the moonlight, and if there was no moon he lit up straw and leaves and read beside the fire. If he found something valuable in the book, he would write it down. Because of this hard work, he became a famous scholar years later. Many people came to visit him and asked to be his student.

Before Ren Mo died, he cautioned his students, "If one can persist in studying for a lifetime, even if one dies, one lives forever. Otherwise, one's life is just like that of a walking corpse."

Usage Example (Pinyin): Dian(4) ying(3) li ren(2) men chang(2) chang(2) yin(1) wei(4) shi(1) lian(4) bian(4) cheng(2) xing(2) shi(1) zou(3) rou(4), dan(4) xian(4) shi(2) sheng(1) huo(2) bu(3) shi(4).

Usage Example (English translation): In the movies, a person will become a walking corpse because of their failure in love, but in real life this is not the case.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.