民不聊生 — Chinese idiom
民不聊生
mín bù liáo shēng
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.