四體不勤，五穀不分

Chinese

four limbs of a human; arms and legs not; no diligent; frequent the Five Grains or Five Cereals to not distinguish between
trad. (四體不勤，五穀不分) 四體 不 勤 ， 五穀 不分
simp. (四体不勤，五谷不分) 四体 不 勤 ， 五谷 不分
Literally: “One's four limbs never move and cannot distinguish the five kinds of cereals”.

Etymology

From the Analects, Book 18 (《論語·微子》):

子路從而後，遇丈人以杖荷蓧。子路問曰：『子見夫子乎？』丈人曰：『四體不勤，五穀不分，孰為夫子？』 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
子路从而后，遇丈人以杖荷𦰏。子路问曰：『子见夫子乎？』丈人曰：『四体不勤，五谷不分，孰为夫子？』 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: The Analects of Confucius, c. 475 – 221 BCE
Zǐlù cóng ér hòu, yù zhàngrén yǐ zhàng hé yóu. Zǐlù wèn yuē: ‘Zǐ jiàn fūzǐ hū?’ Zhàngrén yuē: ‘Sìtǐ bù qín, wǔgǔ bùfēn, shú wèi fūzǐ?’ [Pinyin]
Tsze-lu, following the Master, happened to fall behind, when he met an old man, carrying across his shoulder on a staff a basket for weeds. Tsze-lu said to him, "Have you seen my master, sir!" The old man replied, "Your four limbs are unaccustomed to toil; you cannot distinguish the five kinds of grain:—who is your master?"

Pronunciation

  • Mandarin
    (Pinyin): sìtǐ bù qín, wǔgǔ bùfēn
    (Zhuyin): ㄙˋ ㄊㄧˇ ㄅㄨˋ ㄑㄧㄣˊ , ㄨˇ ㄍㄨˇ ㄅㄨˋ ㄈㄣ
  • Cantonese (Jyutping): sei3 tai2 bat1 kan4, ng5 guk1 bat1 fan1

Idiom

四體不勤，五穀不分

  1. (of scholars) to be detached from practical life (e.g. by not engaging in manual labor) and lack practical knowledge and skills
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.