髀肉之嘆
Lamenting the Fat on One’s Thighs
Meaning
Grieving that one’s thighs have grown fat from too long out of the saddle — the anguish of years slipping by with one’s ambitions unfulfilled.
Origin story
Driven off by Cao Cao, Liu Bei spent years as a guest of Liu Biao in Jing Province. One day at a banquet, he returned from a brief absence with tears in his eyes. Asked why, he said: "Once my body never left the saddle, and my thighs carried no fat. Now I ride no more, and the flesh has grown back. The months and years gallop past, and I have accomplished nothing — that is my grief." From a hero’s tears over his own thighs came this idiom. Not long after, Liu Bei made his three visits, won Zhuge Liang, and rose again.
Source: Jiuzhou Chunqiu (Pei Songzhi’s annotations to Liu Bei’s biography)
People
Modern examples
- Stuck in a role that used none of his training, he ached at his own idle years.
- A season on the bench with an injury — watching his edge dull was the old lament of the fattening thighs.