一毛不拔
yī máo bù bá Not Give Even a HairRefuse to give even a single hair from your body. Mencius's phrase for the Yangist philosophy of radical self-preservation — and the word for a miser that it became.
Source · 来源 láiyuán
The phrase originates in the Mencius (孟子), in the chapter 尽心上 ("Fully Using the Heart, Part One"). Mencius is classifying the philosophical positions of his contemporaries and uses a thought experiment to contrast Yang Zhu (杨朱) with Mozi (墨子):
杨子取为我，拔一毛而利天下，不为也。
(Yáng Zǐ qǔ wéi wǒ, bá yī máo ér lì tiānxià, bù wéi yě.)
"Yang Zhu adopted the position of 'for myself.' If plucking a single hair from his body would benefit the whole world, he would not do it."
Yang Zhu (c. 440–360 BCE) was a philosopher whose original texts did not survive but who was influential enough that Mencius considered him one of the two most dangerous thinkers of the age, alongside Mozi. His philosophy, known as Yangism or 为我 (wéi wǒ, "for myself"), held that the self is the only thing properly under one's own authority, and that self-preservation and self-cultivation are the only legitimate goals. To sacrifice any part of oneself for the benefit of others, even a single hair, is a violation of the proper order of things.
Mencius found this position precisely as dangerous as Mozi's universal impartial love (兼爱, jiān ài), just in the opposite direction. Mozi would dissolve all particular bonds in favor of universal benefit; Yang Zhu would dissolve all social obligations in favor of individual self-preservation. Both, in Mencius's view, left no room for the graded human relationships — parent to child, elder to younger, ruler to minister — that Confucian ethics considered the foundation of civilization. For Mencius's critique of Mozi and the philosophy of universal love he opposed, see 墨家 · Mohism.
Meaning · 含义 hányì
The phrase traveled a long distance from its original context. In Mencius, 一毛不拔 describes a coherent, if radical, philosophical position: Yang Zhu's argument that the self is inviolable and that no external benefit justifies self-sacrifice. The image of the hair is precise because a single hair is the smallest imaginable sacrifice — even that, Yang Zhu refuses.
By the time the phrase entered common usage, its philosophical origin had largely faded. What survived was the image of extreme reluctance to give anything, however small, to anyone else. In modern Chinese, 一毛不拔 (literally "not pull out even one hair") functions as a blunt characterization of miserliness. It carries contempt rather than philosophical judgment. Calling someone 一毛不拔 is not a neutral description of their economic philosophy; it is an accusation.
The contrast with the Mohist ideal of 兼爱 (jiān ài, universal impartial concern) is worth holding in mind. Mozi argued that the cause of all social conflict was precisely the failure to extend one's concern equally to all people. Yang Zhu's position is, in a sense, Mozi's nightmare: a world in which no one sacrifices anything for anyone. Mencius, who rejected both extremes, placed the solution in graded relationships and moral cultivation beginning with the family.
Usage · 用法 yòngfǎ
The dominant modern use. Applied to someone who consistently refuses to contribute money, effort, or resources even in situations where a small contribution from them would make a significant difference to others. The tone is derogatory. Said behind someone's back more often than to their face.
Used when someone refuses to contribute to a shared project, group gift, or communal effort. The implication is that their self-interest is so absolute that collective well-being does not register for them at all. The Yangist philosophical background gives the phrase a slightly elevated register even in ordinary use.
大家都捐了，就他一毛不拔，真让人寒心。(Dàjiā dōu juān le, jiù tā yī máo bù bá, zhēn ràng rén hán xīn.) — Everyone else donated; he alone wouldn't give a hair. It really chills the heart.
Character Analysis · 字解 zìjiě
One, a single. The simplest number character: one horizontal stroke. In this phrase, it functions as a minimal quantity marker: not even one, not even the smallest possible amount. The contrast between the insignificance of one hair and the refusal to give it is where the phrase's rhetorical force lives.
Hair, fur, feather; also a unit of currency (one-tenth of a yuan). The character shows body hair in its earliest forms. The currency meaning — 毛 as a colloquial word for 角 (jiǎo) — is unrelated to the chengyu but produces a secondary pun in modern use: 一毛不拔 can be read as "not give even a 毛 coin," reinforcing the miser reading. The original philosophical image uses 毛 in the physical sense: a hair plucked from the body as the smallest possible bodily sacrifice.
Not, do not. The primary negation character in Mandarin. Here it negates the action of 拔: does not pull, will not pull. The present-tense formulation makes the refusal habitual and absolute rather than situational — this is not someone who failed to give in one case but someone who, as a matter of character, does not give.
To pull out, pluck, extract. Used for pulling weeds, extracting teeth, drawing a sword. The physical image is precise: not donating money or goods but plucking a hair from one's own body. Yang Zhu's argument is about bodily inviolability — the self as a space that cannot be sacrificed even in its smallest parts. The verb 拔 keeps this philosophical image alive beneath the everyday miser meaning.