Chinese idioms from the Dao De Jing
出生入死 (chū shēng rù sǐ)
Word for word from chapter 50
出生入死 (chū shēng rù sǐ) opens chapter 50 of the Dao De Jing as “coming out into life, going into death”; today it means to risk one's life again and again.
Character by character
| 出 | chū | to come out, emerge |
|---|---|---|
| 生 | shēng | to live |
| 入 | rù | to enter |
| 死 | sǐ | to die |
| 出生入死 | To face mortal danger, to risk one's life, often side by side with others. | |
Where it comes from
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出生入死。
Coming out into life, going into death.
How the meaning moved
The four characters are the whole first line of chapter 50: “Coming out into life, going into death.” They describe the span of a life, from birth to death. The chapter goes on to count: “Those who follow life are three in ten; those who follow death are three in ten”, and another three in ten move toward the place of death “Because they cling too hard to living.” The one who nurtures life well meets no rhino or tiger, “Because he has no place of death in him.”
The Han Feizi, an early reader of the book, explains the line in the same plain way: people begin in life and end in death; the beginning is called “coming out”, the end “going in”. The sense later shifted. In the Jin dynasty Pan Yue wrote in his “Autumn Rhapsody” (秋兴赋) of those who “know safety and forget danger, and so come out into life and go into death”, and from there the phrase came to mean putting one's life at risk. That is its usual meaning today, said of soldiers, firefighters or old comrades who have faced death together.
Using it today
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这些消防员在火场里出生入死，救出了几十个人。
zhè xiē xiāo fáng yuán zài huǒ chǎng lǐ chū shēng rù sǐ, jiù chū le jǐ shí gè rén.
These firefighters risked their lives in the blaze and brought out dozens of people.
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他们是一起出生入死的战友，几十年后还常常联系。
tā men shì yī qǐ chū shēng rù sǐ de zhàn yǒu, jǐ shí nián hòu hái cháng cháng lián xì.
They are comrades who faced death together, and decades later they are still in touch.