📖 Meaning
The body disappears even faster than morning dew evaporates. It is a metaphor for dying very quickly or perishing soon. The image draws on how dew vanishes rapidly once the sun rises.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom draws on the classical Chinese image of morning dew (朝露), long used in literature as a metaphor for the fragility and brevity of life, since dew evaporates quickly once the sun rises. The phrase suggests that a person's body perishes even faster than this fleeting dew. It has appeared in literary contexts lamenting sudden or imminent death. No single authoritative textual source is recorded for this exact phrasing. The expression reflects a broader tradition in Chinese writing of comparing human mortality to ephemeral natural phenomena.
💡 Example Usage
他病势沉重，恐身先朝露，熬不过今冬。
His illness is grave; I fear he will pass like morning dew and not survive this winter.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 身先朝露
- Pinyin: shēn xiān cháo lù
- Literal Translation: body, before, morning, dew
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4