📖 Meaning
Wearing tattered clothes and eating coarse, poor-quality food. It describes a life of poverty and material hardship. It is often used to portray someone who endures destitution while maintaining their principles or composure.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from a biography by the Song dynasty scholar Zeng Gong, titled 'Biography of Xu Fu' (《徐复传》). Zeng Gong describes Xu Fu as living in a rundown alley in a leaky house, wearing worn clothes and eating coarse food, sometimes unable even to provide for himself. Despite such deprivation, the text notes that these circumstances never shook his resolve or disturbed his mind. The passage thus portrays a learned man who remained steadfast and untroubled amid poverty.
💡 Example Usage
他半生敝衣粝食，却始终不肯接受别人的施舍。
He spent half his life in worn clothes and coarse food, yet never accepted charity from anyone.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 敝衣粝食
- Pinyin: bì yī lì shí
- Literal Translation: worn clothes, coarse food
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4