"Lying on a Cow's Coat and Weeping Together" comes from the "Book of Han: Biography of Wang Zhang." It tells of Wang Zhang in the Western Han dynasty, whose family was poor and who had no blanket in winter, so he lay in a cow's coat (a straw garment used to keep cattle warm) and wept face to face with his wife. Later, Wang Zhang exerted himself and rose to the office of Metropolitan Governor. The idiom literally refers to a husband and wife weeping face to face in a cow's coat, and its deeper meaning is to describe the desolate plight of a poor couple who rely on each other in hardship and lament together. It is often used to depict extreme poverty in life, the helplessness and sorrow of a couple sharing adversity yet being unable to change their circumstances, and it carries a strong tone of sympathy and compassion. In cultural background, it reflects the embarrassment of poor scholars in ancient times and the bond between husband and wife, and it also implies encouragement to remain firm in poverty and strive for success. It is mostly used in written language, to describe the difficult life of a poor couple or to mock one's own poverty. Its emotional tone tends toward sadness and bitterness, but sometimes it also contains praise for deep marital affection and unwavering mutual commitment.
📝 Example
1. That laid-off couple lived in a leaking shack, truly a case of "a cow's coat and tears shared," yet they still supported each other. (Describes a poor couple sighing together in hardship, living in extreme poverty.)
2. He recalled the days when he and his wife shared "a cow's coat and tears," and though he was now wealthy, he still dared not forget his roots. (Refers to the difficult times when a couple endured poverty together, weeping side by side.)