📖 Meaning
Flesh growing on the thighs from not riding a horse for a long time. It describes living in comfort and ease for an extended period, achieving nothing of consequence. The idiom expresses worry about becoming soft and useless due to idleness.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from a story recorded in the annotation to the 'Records of the Three Kingdoms' (Sanguozhi), in the biography of Liu Bei, founder of the Shu Han kingdom. The annotation quotes Sima Biao's 'Annals of the Nine Provinces' (Jiuzhou Chunqiu) from the Jin dynasty. Liu Bei, after years of constant warfare, was stationed in Jingzhou under Liu Biao, living in relative comfort for several years. One day, noticing flesh had regrown on his thighs from lack of riding, he wept and remarked that he used to never leave the saddle and his thigh muscles were lean, but now that he no longer rode, flesh had grown back, and time was passing without him achieving his ambitions.
💡 Example Usage
久不征战，他自觉髀里肉生，心中甚是焦虑。
Having not fought in battle for a long time, he felt the flesh growing on his thighs and grew deeply anxious.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 髀里肉生
- Pinyin: bì lǐ ròu shēng
- Literal Translation: thigh, inside, flesh, grows
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4