📖 Meaning
Used as verbs, "sheng" means to bring the dead back to life and "rou" means to grow flesh on bare bones. The idiom describes a favor or grace so immense that it is likened to reviving the dead and restoring flesh to skeletons. It conveys profound gratitude for a life-saving or redemptive kindness.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Zuo Zhuan (左传, Chronicle of Zuo), a foundational historical text from the Spring and Autumn period. In the twenty-second year of Duke Xiang, the speaker says upon meeting Master Shen Shu that this is what is called "bringing the dead to life and growing flesh on bones." A second occurrence appears in the twenty-fifth year of Duke Zhao, where Yi Ru says that if allowed to serve the lord anew, it would be "what is called bringing the dead to life and growing flesh on bones." The metaphor of resurrection was used to convey the magnitude of a life-saving or redemptive kindness.
💡 Example Usage
恩公出手相救，实乃生死肉骨之恩，在下必当图报。
Your saving intervention, benefactor, is truly a grace like bringing the dead back to life and growing flesh on bones—I shall surely repay it.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 生死肉骨
- Pinyin: shēng sǐ ròu gǔ
- Literal Translation: make-live, the-dead, grow-flesh, bones
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4