忧民之忧者

憂民之憂者
yōu mín zhī yōu zhě
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 one who grieves over the people's griefs
  2. 2 a ruler who takes the people's worries as his own
  3. 3 (lit.) one who worries over the people's worries

Examples

Zuò guān shǒuxiān děi shì yōumínzhīyōuzhě, ránhòu cáinéng lè mín zhī lè.
An official must first worry over the people's worries — only then may he rejoice in their joys.
Tā shì zhēnzhèng de yōumínzhīyōuzhě, jiàn bùdé bǎixìng shòukǔ.
He truly grieves over the people's griefs — he can't bear to see ordinary folk suffer.

Tips

history
From 《孟子·》 (Mencius: King Hui of Liang II). Full parallel: 『天下天下』— a Mencian template for benevolent rule. The later Song-dynasty line 『先天后天』 by Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹) in 《岳阳》 directly descends from this.
usage
Paired with 『』 as the setup-and-payoff structure. The between and is the classical possessive ('of'), making the whole a nominalized phrase: 'one-who-worries-over-the-people's-worries.'

Stroke Order

yōu
mín
zhī
zhě