cravenly cling to life instead of braving death

cravenly cling to life instead of braving death

Chinese idiom, Pinyin is t ā NSH ē NGP à s ǐ, meaning blindly love life, fear of death. It originally refers to soldiers who are afraid of death and hold back in battle. Now a new meaning has gradually come into being, that is, those who are afraid of dirty, tired, dangerous and so on in their work belong to this category. It comes from the biography of wensanwang in Hanshu.

Idiom usage

Combined; used as predicate, attribute and object; with derogatory meaning

The origin of Idioms

According to the biography of wensanwang in the history of Han Dynasty, "today, I know that the thief killed Zhonglang Cao general. The winter moon is pressing, and I am greedy for life and afraid of death. That is to say, I cheat and stifle my servant Yang (feint) disease. I am more fortunate than a moment." Qu Bo's "forest and snow" 2: "none of them escaped. They know more people and more strength."

Idiom story

Liang was a vassal state in the Western Han Dynasty. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Li was granted the title of king of Liang. He was wild and cruel. He was cruel to the people. He was independent and did whatever he wanted. After the death of emperor Cheng of Han Dynasty and the accession of emperor AI to the throne, Liu Li acted more recklessly, ignoring the legal system of the imperial court, and arbitrarily killed his subordinates, such as Zhonglang general Cao. When Ai Di knew about it, he was very angry and sent officials to hear the case. Liu Li pretended to be ill and bedridden. The case officer then revealed that the emperor AI was going to order to take over the seal of King Liang and imprison him. At this time, Liu Li realized the seriousness of the situation and quickly took off the crown, kneeling on the ground to plead guilty. He said that his crime was due to the loss of his parents when he was young. He was influenced by eunuchs and maids in the palace and got into a bad habit. Some ministers often told stories in front of Ai Di to express his dissatisfaction with him. Then, he said, "I killed general Cao of Zhonglang. I thought that the winter would soon pass and the new year's amnesty would come. I was afraid of being executed, so I wanted to pretend to be ill and get amnesty until next spring." Sure enough, in the spring of the next year, Emperor AI granted amnesty to the whole world, and Liu Li got away with it. Later, after Wang Mang usurped the power of the Han Dynasty, Liu Li was abandoned as a civilian and soon committed suicide.