







西山饿夫 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “refers to individuals, specifically Bo Yi and Shu Qi, who, out of unyielding moral principles, chose to starve rather than accept provisions or serve a new regime they considered illegitimate; symbolizing steadfast integrity, unwavering loyalty, and defiance against perceived injustice or moral compromise”. Literally, “Hungry men of the West Mountain”.
At the end of the Shang Dynasty, Bo Yi, the eldest son of Lord Guzhu, firmly refused to inherit the throne after his father's death.
Later, when the Shang Dynasty fell and King Wu of Zhou established the Zhou Dynasty, Bo Yi and his younger brother Shu Qi felt it was a great disgrace to serve the new dynasty. They decided never to eat the grain of the Zhou Dynasty, considering it illegitimate. The two brothers then secluded themselves on Shouyang Mountain, subsisting solely on wild fruits and vegetables gathered from the mountain, and eventually starved to death there.
They became a symbol of unwavering moral integrity and loyalty.

Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →
Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →
Choose character parts and animate their colors, together or in stroke order
Open the tool →
Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →西山饿夫 (xī shān è fū) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “refers to individuals, specifically Bo Yi and Shu Qi, who, out of unyielding moral principles, chose to starve rather than accept provisions or serve a new regime they considered illegitimate; symbolizing steadfast integrity, unwavering loyalty, and defiance against perceived injustice or moral compromise”.
西山饿夫 is pronounced xī shān è fū in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 西山饿夫 means “Hungry men of the West Mountain”. It is used to mean “refers to individuals, specifically Bo Yi and Shu Qi, who, out of unyielding moral principles, chose to starve rather than accept provisions or serve a new regime they considered illegitimate; symbolizing steadfast integrity, unwavering loyalty, and defiance against perceived injustice or moral compromise”.
西山饿夫 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
指不食周粟的伯夷与叔齐