Chinese idiom · 成语
狐死首丘
Meaning
A fox dies facing its hill; loyalty to one’s homeland.
Character by character
Origin and story
Traditional beliefLiji (禮記), Tan Gong Shang (檀弓上), discusses returning to one’s origins through burial and ritual. After recounting how Taigong’s descendants were brought back for burial in Zhou over several generations, it invokes an old saying: a dying fox directs its head toward its natal mound. The animal image represents not forgetting one’s roots.
This is a traditional belief used for a moral comparison, not a modern zoological finding that all foxes die in that position. The later four-character expression conveys attachment to home or the wish to return to one’s place of origin, particularly toward the end of life.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
爷爷晚年总想回老家，说自己也有狐死首丘之情。
In his later years, Grandfather always wanted to return home, saying he too felt that deep attachment to his roots.
Literary and often solemn, especially concerning homecoming late in life.