民不聊生 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• the people have no way to make a living (from Records of the Grand Historian 史记 (Shǐ jì))

Character by character

• 民míncitizens, subjects; a nation's people
• 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
• 聊liáosomewhat, slightly, at least
• 生shēnglife, lifetime; birth; growth

Idioms sharing a character

• 全民皆兵 quán mín jiē bīng
• 削职为民 xuē zhí wéi mín
• 劳民伤财 láo mín shāng cái
• 升斗小民 shēng dǒu xiǎo mín
• 国弱民穷 guó ruò mín qióng
• 国泰民安 guó tài mín ān
• 国计民生 guó jì mín shēng
• 官逼民反 guān bī mín fǎn
• 吊民伐罪 diào mín fá zuì
• 爱民如子 ài mín rú zǐ

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.