CHENGYU
兔死狐悲(tù sǐ hú bēi)meaning, story and origin
- Register:
- literary
- Source:
- 元·无名氏《赚蒯通》
MEANING
- Literal
- the fox mourns when the rabbit dies
- Figurative meaning
- to grieve for the fate of one's own kind
ORIGIN STORY
When a rabbit dies, the fox weeps — not out of love, but because the same hunter will come for it next. It describes sorrow for a companion's ruin that foreshadows one's own.
NATURAL EQUIVALENT
“to grieve for oneself at another's fall”
EXAMPLES
同行被罚，他心里兔死狐悲，很不安。Tóngháng bèi fá, tā xīnli tù sǐ hú bēi, hěn bù ān.HSK6
When a peer was punished, he felt the fox's grief for the rabbit — deeply uneasy.
看到同事被裁，大家都有点兔死狐悲。Kàn dào tóngshì bèi cái, dàjiā dōu yǒudiǎn tù sǐ hú bēi.HSK6
Seeing a colleague laid off, everyone felt the fox mourning the rabbit.
COMMON MISTAKE
Watch out: The grief is self-interested fear, not genuine sympathy.
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
Tap a character to explore it
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
- CC-CEDICT 2026-01-01