📖 Meaning
Literally 'eating the produce and treading the soil of the land.' It originally referred to the fact that one's food and dwelling place all belonged to the sovereign. Feudal officials used it to express gratitude and loyalty for the ruler's grace.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase traces to the Zuo Zhuan (《左传·昭公七年》), a Spring and Autumn period chronicle. In the seventh year of Duke Zhao of Lu, the text declares: 'Within the borders, what is not the ruler's land? Eating the produce of the soil, who is not the ruler's subject?' The idea is that everything one consumes and every inch one walks upon belongs to the state. Later officials invoked '食毛践土' to profess indebtedness and fealty to the sovereign.
💡 Example Usage
既食毛践土于此邦，理当尽忠报国。
Having eaten of the grain and trod the soil of this land, one is duty-bound to serve the nation with loyalty.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 食毛践土
- Pinyin: shí máo jiàn tǔ
- Literal Translation: eat the grain, tread the earth
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4