good medicine tastes bitter

good medicine tastes bitter

The Chinese idiom Li á ngy à OK à K à u in pinyin means that good medicine often tastes bitter. It refers to heartfelt advice and sharp criticism. It sounds uncomfortable, but it is good for correcting shortcomings and mistakes. It comes from Han Feizi, the top left of waichu.

The origin of Idioms

"Han Feizi Wai Chu Shuo Zuo Shang" says: "the husband's good medicine is bitter in the mouth, but the wise men advise him to drink it, knowing that it is only in his own disease."

Idiom usage

Subject predicate type; used as subject, object, clause; used for exhortation. Examples in Sima Qian's Shi Ji Liu Hou Shi Jia of the Western Han Dynasty, it is said that "good advice is good for deeds, but bitter medicine is good for diseases." "The good medicine is bitter in the mouth and beneficial to the disease, and the loyal advice is adverse to the ear and beneficial to the action," said Wang Su in the sixth edition of Confucius family language Biography of sun Fen in the annals of the Three Kingdoms: a good medicine tastes bitter, but the one who washes it is sweet. Good advice is harsh to the ear, only those who have reached it can accept it. In the biography of Xu Guozhen in volume 168 of the history of the Yuan Dynasty, when he called Guozhen into the vision, Shizu said, "if you don't listen to your words, you will be trapped." To say: "good medicine bitter mouth already know of carry on, loyal advice adverse ear, willing to pay attention to Yan?" Shizu Dayue.