This idiom comes from the
孟子 (Mencius). Confucius reportedly criticized the ancient practice of burying humanoid figurines (
俑) with the dead, saying:
始作俑者，
其无后乎 — 'Whoever first made burial figurines, surely they had no descendants.' He feared that realistic human-shaped burial objects would lead to burying actual people, which had once been practiced. The idiom now refers to anyone who sets a harmful precedent.
