📖 Meaning
To live in the mountains and drink from valley springs. This idiom describes a life of peaceful seclusion and reclusion, far removed from worldly affairs and officialdom. It embodies the Daoist ideal of returning to nature and living in harmony with the wilderness.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom first appears in the 'Book of Wei' (魏书), in the 'Chronicle of Emperor Suzong' (肃宗纪), where it describes hermits who 'cherish the Way in their gardens and hills, dwelling in mountains and drinking from valleys, rolling and unrolling with the times.' The Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei (王维) later used this idiom in his 'Letter to Layman Wei' (与魏居士书), praising his friend Wei for over twenty years of reclusive life spent 'dwelling in the mountains and drinking from the valleys, living high and seeing deep.' Wang Wei himself was famous for his landscape poetry and his own reclusive villa in the Zhongnan Mountains.
💡 Example Usage
他厌倦了官场纷争，决意山栖谷饮，了此余生。
Weary of the strife in officialdom, he resolved to live in mountain seclusion and drink from valley streams for the rest of his days.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 山栖谷饮
- Pinyin: shān qī gǔ yǐn
- Literal Translation: mountain-dwell, valley-drink
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4