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Have you ever lost the foundation, purpose and hope of your life? Have you ever felt that you were living physically but not spiritually? If so, this is the post for you to learn, how to describe the miserable state you were in — as desolate as a walking dead.

Learn Mandarin Chinese – How to say – After the tragedy, she lost all she had and became a walking dead.

Click death to hear the recording —–>

悲剧发生之后，她失去了她所有的一切，她的生活变成如行尸走肉一般。
bēijù fāshēng zhīhòu , tā shīqù le tā suǒyǒu de yīqiè , tā de shēnghuó biànchéng rú xíng shī zǒu ròu yībān .
bēi jù (悲 bēi, adjective, sad; 剧 jù, noun, drama; together 悲剧 bēijù means tragedy) fāshēng (发生 verb, occur) zhīhòu (之后 preposition, after) , tā (她pronoun, she) shīqù (失去 verb, lose) le (了particle to show action occurred) tā (她 pronoun, she or her) suǒyǒu (所有 adjective, all) de (的 particle, to connect the attributive and the noun it modifies) yīqiè (一切 noun, everything) , tā (她 pronoun, she) de (的 connecting particle) shēnghuó (生活 noun, life) biànchéng (变成 verb, become) rú (如 verb, is like) xíng (行 verb, walk) shī (尸noun, corpse) zǒu (走 verb, walk) ròu (肉 noun, meat) yībān (一般 adjective, same) .

The definition of idiom 行尸走肉 xíng shī zǒu ròu

Literally it means walking dead body and walking dead meat or a living body without soul and spirit.

The origin of of the idiom comes from Confucius (551–479 BC, was a Chinese teacher, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history):

In Lun Yu (论语, The Analects, also known as the Analects of Confucius, are the collection of sayings and ideas of the most important Chinese thinker and philosopher Confucius, it was written by his followers), it says

夫人好学，虽死若存；不学者虽存，谓之行尸走肉耳。

There is a joke for you from Google Translate in the way how the sentence got translated:

Eager to learn his wife lived and if the deposit; scholars, although the deposit, that the zombie ears.

Zombie ears sound cute? Not really. Google Translate is totally unsuitable for translating classic Chinese, now that you can see!

Here is my translation

Click death to hear the recording —–>

夫人好学，虽死若存；不学者虽存，谓之行尸走肉耳。

fū ren hǎo xué , suī sǐ ruò cún ；bù xué zhě suī cún , wèi zhī xíng shī zǒu ròu ěr .

fū (initial particle, introduces an opinion) ren (noun, people) hǎo (verb, love) xué (noun, learning) , suī (conjunction, even though) sǐ (verb, die) ruò (verb, is like) cún (noun, living) ；bù (negate word, not) xué (verb, learn) zhě (pronoun, the people) suī (conjunction, even though) cún (verb, live) , wèi (verb, to name, or to call) zhī (pronoun, it) xíng (verb, walk) shī (noun, corpse) zǒu (verb, walk) ròu (noun, meat) ěr (particle, and that is all, classical Chinese usage ) .

For those people who love to learn, even though they died, they are still like alive; for those people who don’t learn, even though they are alive, we name them as walking dead.

Thus, this idiom has a few meanings:

1 Living without hope or soul, live life only physically
2 A passive life without purpose, randomly living without any rightful doing

Examples of how to use the idiom 行尸走肉 xíng shī zǒu ròu

Click death to listen to the recording ——->

1 她最爱的人死了，她觉得人生不再存有任何意义，日子对她来说只是行尸走肉而已。
tā zuì ài de rén sǐ le , tā juéde rénshēng bù zài cúnyǒurènhé yìyì , rìzi duì tā láishuō zhǐ shì xíng shī zǒu ròu éryǐ .
The person she loves the most died. She feels there is no purpose in her life anymore, and everyday for her is like living as a walking dead that’s all.

2 他的生活没有任何目标， 过一天算一天，不求上进。
tā de shēnghuó méiyǒu rènhé mùbiāo , guò yītiānsuàn yītiān, bù qiú shàngjìn .
His life has no aims; he is just taking one day at a time, and not wanting to improve himself in anyway.

Since we have a walking dead topic for today, let’s read some quotes about death to make the post more deathful.

Quotes about dead:
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
Elie Wiesel

“The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside us while we live.”
Norman Cousins

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”
Steve Jobs

“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.”
Oscar Wilde

“After your death you will be what you were before your birth.”
Arthur Schopenhauer

“Your soul will be dead even before your body: fear nothing further.”
Friedrich Nietzsche quotes

“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.”
Bertrand Russell quotes

“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”
Og Mandino quotes

“From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.”
Thomas Moore

Let’s conclude the post with a perfect dead finale

Zebrahead – The Walking Dead Lyrics