created sense approved 皮之不存，毛将焉附/皮之不存，毛將焉附 · pízhībùcúnmáojiāngyānfù · without the foundation nothing survives — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"
皮之不存，毛将焉附 / 皮之不存，毛將焉附
pízhībùcúnmáojiāngyānfù
without the foundation nothing survives
Literally "if the hide is gone, where will the hair attach?"; used as a metaphor meaning that if the foundation of a thing is lost, the thing itself cannot exist (from the [[左传|左傳|zuo3 zhuan4]])
皮 (literal) → 皮 · pí · skin; leather 之 (literal) → 之 · zhī · [nominalizer] 不 (literal) → 不 · bù · not 存 (literal) → 存 · cún · to exist ， (non_chinese) 毛 (literal) → 毛 · máo · hair 将 (literal) → 将/將 · jiāng · [future] 焉 (literal) → 焉 · yān · how 附 (literal) → 附 · fù · to adhere to
Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition