生不如死 Life is worse than death
Explanation
形容人处境极度悲惨，活着不如死了痛快。
Describes an extremely miserable situation where life is unbearable.
Origin Story
从前，有一个年轻人，名叫阿强。他从小失去双亲，独自一人生活。为了生计，他不得不从事各种繁重的工作，每天辛勤劳作，却依然无法摆脱贫困。他住在破旧的茅屋里，衣不蔽体，食不果腹，日子过得十分艰难。更让他痛苦的是，他深爱的妻子因病离世，这让他彻底失去了生活的希望。他每天都生活在悲痛之中，觉得活着比死了还难受，生不如死。他经常坐在荒野上，默默地流泪，后悔自己来到这个世界上。有一天，他偶然听到一个关于神仙的故事，据说神仙可以帮助那些不幸的人们。他心生希望，便开始寻找神仙，渴望得到解脱。但他四处寻找，却始终没有找到神仙。最终，他放弃了希望，抱着绝望的心态继续度日。
Once upon a time, there was a young man named Aqiang. He lost his parents at a young age and had to live alone. In order to make a living, he had to do all kinds of heavy work, working hard every day, but he still couldn't escape poverty. He lived in a dilapidated thatched hut, poorly clothed and barely enough to eat. His days were very hard. Even more painful was the death of his beloved wife from illness, which completely deprived him of hope in life. He lived in grief every day and felt that it was worse to live than to die. He often sat in the wilderness and wept silently, regretting coming into this world. One day, he accidentally heard a story about gods who could supposedly help unfortunate people. He was filled with hope and began to search for gods, hoping for salvation. But no matter where he searched, he could not find any gods. Eventually, he gave up hope and continued to spend his days in despair.
Usage
作宾语、状语；指处境极度悲惨
Used as object and adverbial; describes an extremely miserable situation.
Examples
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他被老板压榨，每天加班到深夜，感觉生不如死。
ta bei laoban yazha, meitian jiaban dao shenye, gandao shengburusi.
He felt like he was dying under the pressure from his boss.
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身处困境，他觉得生不如死。
shenchu kunjing, ta juede shengburusi
In this predicament, he felt like he was dead.