During the Chu-Han conflict, a silver-tongued strategist named Lu Jia served under Liu Bang, often sent as an envoy to rival kingdoms and always returning victorious in debate. His eloquence earned him high favor, a generous salary, and great wealth. After Liu Bang's death, Lu Jia retired to Yongzhou to enjoy his twilight years. With his five sons now grown, he decided to set aside his burdens and live peacefully.
He divided all his savings equally among his sons, telling them to start their own businesses and live independently. But he set one condition: "I will travel with a dozen singers and dancers, visiting each of you throughout the year. Whenever I stop at your home, you must serve me the finest food—do not slack just because I come often." He added, "If I die at your house, my belongings and servants will be yours."
Thereafter, he indeed traveled with attendants and a precious sword, rotating to stay and eat at each son's home roughly every ten days, and all five sons, mindful of their father's lesson, dared not neglect him nor dared to feel annoyed.
"Shu" means repeatedly; "xian" refers to freshly killed birds or animals. The original meaning of "seen repeatedly, no longer fresh" was that frequent guests need not be entertained with freshly slaughtered livestock. Later, this idiom came to describe something seen so often it no longer feels novel.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Biographies of Li Yiji and Lu Jia"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "屡见不鲜" came to describe how something seen so often it no longer feels novel.