During the Sui Dynasty, Chen Xiaoyi, a judicial clerk in Lu Commandery, was known for his fairness and integrity. Once, to save a wrongly condemned prisoner he had never met, he offered to die in his place. His reputation soared, earning deep respect even from Governor Su Wei.
Chen Xiaoyi was also a model of filial piety. After his father's death, he resigned from office to observe the traditional mourning period at home. When the mourning ended, he was appointed by the imperial court as the deputy governor of Yanmen Commandery, yet he continued to live as if still in mourning—eating only vegetarian meals, abstaining from meat, and weeping bitterly every morning and evening, longing for his deceased father. His grief was so intense that he would often faint from sorrow, leaving him "withered like a stick, with bones protruding from his frame." Seeing him in such a state, no one could remain unmoved by his devotion.
"Chai Hui Gu Li": "Hui" means grief-stricken, ruining one's health from excessive sorrow. This idiom describes a person so consumed by grief that they become as thin as dry wood, appearing as little more than a skeleton.
Source: *History of the Northern Dynasties*, "Biography of Chen Xiaoyi"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "柴毁骨立" came to describe a person so consumed by grief that they become as thin as dry wood, appearing as little more than a skeleton.