Our mission is to provide free tools for learning Chinese. This series explores idioms and proverbs, meaningful phrases worth knowing. Today’s idiom: 「己饑己溺」.
Let’s dive into the idiom 「己饑己溺」. Its definition and application are outlined below.
Others starving or drowning is just like you starving or drowning yourself. In the old days, it was used to describe those in power who cared about the suffering of the people. It also means to express deep sympathy for other people’s suffering and to take it as one’s responsibility to relieve other people’s suffering.
The Mandarin pronunciation of this idiom is :
jǐ qí jǐ nì
while its Cantonese pinyin is :
gei2 gei1 gei2 nik1
The world of Chinese idioms is immense, with countless meanings and applications to discover. We hope these resources help you unlock the beauty of learning Chinese.
