📖 Meaning
Both one's life and one's good name are destroyed together. It describes total ruin in which a person loses their life (or standing) and their reputation at the same time, leaving nothing intact. Used of someone who meets complete disgrace and destruction.
📜 Origin Story
This four-character form has no recorded origin in classical sources (出处:无). It is a variant of the older expression 身名俱灭, 'body and fame both perish.' The idea echoes the classical contrast drawn in the Zuo Zhuan (左传, Spring and Autumn period), where only establishing virtue, achieving merit, and leaving words behind — the 'three immortalities' — let a name outlive the body. 身名俱败 sharpens this into a warning: when neither body nor reputation survives, a person's life amounts to nothing.
💡 Example Usage
这位昔日权臣一朝失势，落得身名俱败的下场。
This once-powerful minister lost his position overnight and ended up with both his life and his reputation ruined.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 身名俱败
- Pinyin: shēn míng jù bài
- Literal Translation: body, reputation, both, ruined
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4