饮水思源

Pronunciation: yǐn shuǐ sī yuán Literal meaning: Drink water think source

Origin & Usage

Yu Xin, writing in the sixth century, put it as 落其实者思其树，饮其流者怀其源 — who eats the fruit thinks of the tree, who drinks from the stream remembers its source. The four-character form keeps the second half: drink (饮) the water (水), think (思) of the source (源). It concerns debts owed rather than gratitude in the abstract, and in practice it is aimed at people who have arrived somewhere and stopped mentioning how. Teachers, parents, the place somebody came from — usually invoked at the exact moment when forgetting would be most convenient.

Examples

English: "After achieving success, she created a scholarship at her old school"

Chinese: 在成功之后，她在母校设立了奖学金