A Walking Corpse
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Pronunciation:
xing (2) shi(1) zou(3) rou(4)
Explanation:
Said of someone whose life is meaningless.
The Story: In the Eastern Han Dynasty,
there was a guy named Ren Mo. Ren always said
to himself, "if one wants to be a useful
person, he must study hard." By the time
he was fourteen, he hadn't had a regular teacher
yet. So he had to carry his bookcase to a
distant place for advice. Sometimes he had
to live in a shed made of straw in the woods
and used a twig as a pen and tree sap as ink
to write. He read in the moonlight. When there
was no moon, he would light a straw torch.
Whenever he got inspirations from his reading,
he would write them down on his clothes immediately.
Day after day and year after year, Ren eventually
became a learned person. Many people came
to him and became his students.
Before he died, he taught
his students, "If a person studies hard,
he is to be alive even he is dead; if a person
doesn't study, he is to be dead even he is
alive. He is nothing but a walking corpse
that has no soul."
Usage Example (Pinyin):
ta(1) li(2) kai(1) hou(4), nu(3) hai(2) hen(3)
shang(1) xin(1), xiang(4) xing(2) shi(1) zou(3)
rou(4) yi(1) yang(4) de sheng(1) huo(2) zhe.
Usage Example (English
translation): After he left, the girl
was very depressed and lived like a walking
corpse.
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.
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