日出而作 (rì chū ér zuō) — to start work at sunrise (and rest at sunset);…

Definition

A literary chengyu describing a traditional agrarian rhythm — rise at sunrise, stop at sunset. Paired with 日落而息, it idealizes a simple farming life.

verb

to start work at sunrise (and rest at sunset)to live a simpleagrarian life

日出而作，。
Nóng mín men rì chū ér zuō, rì luò ér xī.
Farmers start work at sunrise and rest at sunset.
日出而作。
Tā xiàng wǎng nà zhǒng rì chū ér zuō de tián yuán shēng huó.
He longs for that kind of pastoral life of starting work at sunrise.
，日出而作。
Zài zhè ge xiǎo zhèn shàng, rén men réng rán bǎo chí zhe rì chū ér zuō de chuán tǒng.
In this small town, people still maintain the tradition of starting work at sunrise.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

日 originally drew the sun. A mark was added inside to tell it apart from similar square shapes.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

出 combines 止 (foot) and 凵 (cave) to show a foot stepping out of a cave.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 而 is a picture of a beard.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

亻乍作

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

乍

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left side 亻 comes from 人, meaning 'person', and the right side 乍 gives the sound.