lead a hard life
Morning and evening salt, Chinese idiom, Pinyin zh ā OJ ī m ù y á n, breakfast with chopped pickles, dinner with salt. Simple diet, simple life.
Classics
Han Yu's essay on sending the poor: in the fourth year of Taixue's reign, he lived in the morning and in the evening. I'm the only one who can protect you. (Qing Dynasty) Qian Qianyi's epitaph of Qin's mother Qian taiyiren: taiyiren's life is full of salt in the morning and in the evening.
Discrimination
Synonym: simple food antonym: delicacies usage: as predicate, attributive; describes the extreme hardships of life.
lead a hard life
a loss may turn out to be a gain - sài wēng shī mǎ
with not a single ingle detail left out - xiān xī wú yí
The moon is dark and the wind is high - yuè hēi fēng gāo
neither riches nor honours can corrupt him - fù guì bù yín