During the Song Dynasty, in a mountain village of Deqing County, Zhejiang, lived a man named Zhu Tai.
Zhu Tai was a poor woodcutter supporting his elderly mother, wife, and children by selling firewood at a market dozens of miles away. Known for his deep filial piety, he would buy small treats for his mother while his own family ate plain meals year-round, earning him the title of a renowned filial son.
One day, Zhu Tai went into the mountains to gather firewood as usual. As he rested at the foot of the hills, a tiger suddenly burst from the forest, seized him in its jaws, and dragged him away before he could react.
At first, Zhu Tai fainted from terror. After the tiger had gone a few dozen paces, he suddenly came to, struggled with all his might, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "It's nothing if I die, but my poor mother will have no one to care for her!"
Startled, the tiger dropped him and fled!
Zhu Tai narrowly escaped with his life, enduring the pain as he crawled home. When the villagers heard the news, they came one after another to comfort him. Everyone remarked, "Zhu Tai truly escaped from the tiger's jaws this time!"
From then on, Zhu Tai gave himself another name: Zhu Yusheng.
Later, the idiom "Surviving the Tiger's Mouth" came to describe someone who narrowly escapes great danger and luckily survives.
Source: *Water Margin*, Chapter "The Rebellion Report"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "虎口余生" came to describe how someone narrowly escapes great danger and luckily survives.