生于淮北则为枳

生於淮北則為枳

shēng yú Huáiběi zé wéi zhǐ

quotation

Meanings

1 grown north of the Huai River it becomes the bitter trifoliate orange
2 the same thing changes nature with its environment
3 companion line to 橘生淮南则为橘 from Yanzi Chunqiu

Characters

trifoliate orange

Examples

HSK 7-9

橘生淮南则为橘，生于淮北则为枳。这说明环境的重要性。

Jú shēng Huáinán zé wéi jú, shēng yú Huáiběi zé wéi zhǐ. zhè shuōmíng huánjìng de zhòngyàoxìng.

Grown south it's an orange, north it's a bitter zhi - this shows the importance of environment.

HSK 7-9

好员工换到差的团队，生于淮北则为枳，表现一落千丈。

Hǎo yuángōng huàn dào chà de tuánduì, shēng yú Huáiběi zé wéi zhǐ, biǎoxiàn yíluòqiānzhàng.

Good employees in a bad team - 'north of the Huai it becomes bitter' - their performance plummets.

Tips

history

From 《晏子春秋·内篇杂下》. When the Qi minister 晏婴 (Yanzi) was on a mission to Chu, the king of Chu mocked the people of Qi as ill-behaved. Yanzi rebutted with 'an orange grown south of the Huai is sweet, but grown north it turns into the bitter zhi,' implying that the environment of Chu, not Qi, was what corrupted people.

usage

The character 枳 is read zhǐ; it is the sour, bitter trifoliate orange of the rue family, whose fruit is inedible. The line is always paired with the preceding clause 橘生淮南则为橘 as a parallel couplet.

Stroke Order

生 shēng

于 yú

淮 huái

北 běi

则 zé

为 wéi

枳 zhǐ