📖 Meaning
To neither sow nor reap; to not participate in agricultural labor. Used metaphorically to criticize those who live off the labor of others without contributing any work themselves.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase originates from the Shijing (Book of Odes), specifically the poem 'Fa Tan' (Cutting Sandalwood) in the Wei Feng section, dating to the Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th–7th century BCE). The poem is a protest song by laborers who cut sandalwood trees, decrying the exploitation of the ruling class. It asks rhetorically: those who neither sow nor reap, why do they take hundreds of bundles of grain? The line became a lasting critique of those who reap what they did not plant.
💡 Example Usage
他整日无所事事，不稼不穑，全靠父母的积蓄度日。
He does nothing all day, neither sowing nor reaping, living entirely off his parents' savings.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 不稼不穑
- Pinyin: bù jià bù sè
- Literal Translation: not sow, not reap
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4