A sick cow

A sick cow

Niu Yi Bing Wo, a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is Ni ú y ī B ì ngwॸ, which means to describe poverty and disease. It comes from Qinyuanchun and Linqing rhyme again.

The origin of Idioms

Liu Kezhuang's poem "Qinyuanchun and linqingyun again" in Song Dynasty: "when sheep and fur go back, it's hard to keep Yanzi; when cattle are ill, they are willing to cry for Wang Zhang?"

Idiom usage

Used as an object or attribute; used of a person's situation.

Examples

In feudal times, peasants depended on the weather for food. In the event of a severe drought, they were often ill and even died.

Idiom story

Wang Zhang, a scholar of the Han Dynasty, went to Chang'an, the capital city, to study. His academic performance was excellent. Because his family was very poor, he had to lie with his wife in a coir raincoat for cattle to keep out the cold. One day when he was ill, he worried that he would die, and cried with his wife in the coir raincoat. Later, when he became an official, he was given death because he was not used to the dictatorial power of Wang Feng, the uncle of emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, and did not listen to his wife's advice.