不食周粟

Chinese
not; no eat Zhou dynasty grain; millet
trad. (不食周粟) 不 食 周 粟
simp. #(不食周粟) 不 食 周 粟
Literally: “not eating Zhou's grain”.

Etymology

Boyi and Shuqi (approximately 1046 BCE), two princes of the former Shang dynasty, refused to eat the food of the newly founded (in their opinion, usurping) Zhou dynasty. They lived in seclusion in Shouyang Mountain and ate fiddlehead ferns before starving to death:

武王已平殷亂，天下宗周，而伯夷、叔齊恥之，義不食周粟，隱於首陽山，采薇而食之。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
武王已平殷乱，天下宗周，而伯夷、叔齐耻之，义不食周粟，隐于首阳山，采薇而食之。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE
Wǔ wáng yǐ píng Yīn luàn, tiānxià zōng Zhōu, ér Bóyí, Shūqí chǐ zhī, yì bù shí Zhōu sù, yǐn yú Shǒuyáng Shān, cǎiwēi ér shí zhī. [Pinyin]
King Wu pacified the unrest of Yin (Shang), and the whole nation switched allegiance to the Zhou dynasty. But Boyi and Shuqi considered it disgraceful and expressed their loyalty to Yin by not eating any grain of Zhou. They secluded themselves in Shouyang Mountain, where they gathered ferns to eat.

Pronunciation

Idiom

不食周粟

  1. (literary, literal) to refuse to eat the food of the Zhou dynasty
  2. (literary) to categorically refuse to cooperate with people or actions that one disagrees with out of his/her conscience or loyalty
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