生于淮北则为枳

生於淮北則為枳
shēngyúhuáiběizéwéizhǐ
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 grown north of the Huai River it becomes the bitter trifoliate orange
  2. 2 the same thing changes nature with its environment
  3. 3 companion line to 橘生淮南则为橘 from Yanzi Chunqiu

Examples

Jú shēng Huáinán zé wéi jú, shēng yú Huáiběi zé wéi zhǐ — zhè shuōmíng huánjìng de zhòngyàoxìng.
Grown south it's an orange, north it's a bitter zhi — this shows the importance of environment.
Hǎo yuángōng huàn dào chà de tuánduì, shēng yú Huáiběi zé wéi zhǐ, biǎoxiàn yī luò qiān zhàng.
Good employees in a bad team — 'north of the Huai it becomes bitter' — their performance plummets.

Stroke Order

shēng
huái
běi
wèi
zhǐ