What does it mean that people die for money and birds die for food?

In pursuit of money, people can even give up their lives. Birds would rather lose their lives for food

Extended meaning: when it is difficult to save, creatures will try their best to save their lives, so that they will do whatever it takes.

I. Sources

In the Ming dynasty, the anonymous "Zengguang Xianwen"

Second, the original text (excerpt)

Advice when you are unhappy is good for action, and medicine when you are in pain is good for illness.

Those who go against the sky survive, and those who go against the sky die.

People die for money, birds die for food.

Harmony between husband and wife, harp and spring.

Children are poor soon, but they are not rich.

Good will live long, and evil will die young.

Three. translate

Good medicine tastes bitter, which is good for curing diseases, but advice is hard to listen to, but it is of great benefit to human behavior.

Those who obey God's will survive, and those who violate God's will perish.

People die for money, birds die for food.

Husband and wife live in harmony, just like a harp and a spring.

With a son, poverty will not last long; Without a son, wealth will not last long.

Accumulate goodness and respect morality, live long, do bad things and die early.

The extended material "Zengguang Xianwen" consists of rhyming proverbs and well-written documents. Its content is very extensive, from etiquette and morality, laws and regulations to scenic allusions, astronomy and geography, and its sentences are fluent and easy to understand. The understanding of human nature is based on Xunzi's "theory of evil nature", which is a cold perspective of social life. Summarize the dark phenomena in many aspects of society and display them coldly in front of readers.

Most of the sentences in Augmented Xianwen come from the subsets of classics, poems and songs, opera novels, scholars' miscellaneous notes and so on. Their thoughts and concepts are directly or indirectly derived from Confucian and Taoist classics. In a broad sense, it is a popular version of "classic" that appeals to both refined and popular tastes. You can read it without explanation, or you can understand the thoughts and life wisdom of the classics by reading augmented sages.

Baidu Encyclopedia-People die for wealth and birds die for food.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Augmented Xianwen