ren wei chai si - help ?

[jiazhao]

Hello,

I am illiterate in Chinese. Can someone help with this?

ren wei chai si, niu wei si (food) wang.

From young, I seem to have heard in cantonese -

yan wai choi sei, niu wai ZI (?) mong.

My guess is ZI may mean a new born bird. So the meaning is :-

Man dies for wealth, while birds die for their young.

I am likely wrong. Is there this classical version with "zi".

Thanks

jiazhao

[skylee]

The saying is the same in Mandarin and Cantonese. It means, "men die for money, birds die for food".

The "ZI" in your post means food. Its other Cantonese pronunciation, which is much more common, is "sik". "zi" is an older pronunciation.

Although you can't read Chinese, the whold thing in Chinese is "人為財死，鳥為食亡".

[jiazhao]

Thanks for the clarification.

I've got it now. Also I do read some simple Chinese like the words you gave.

jiazhao.