Jia Yi, a native of Luoyang, was a renowned scholar during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty. Gifted and studious from childhood, he was summoned to court as an Erudite and later served as an Imperial Grand Master. However, jealousy from rivals led to his demotion as Grand Tutor to the Prince of Changsha. Frustrated politically, he likened himself to Qu Yuan and wrote the famous "Lament for Qu Yuan." Later, Emperor Wen recalled him to tutor his beloved son, Prince Liu Yi of Liang, hoping Jia Yi would prepare the prince for the throne. Jia Yi then remarked, "To teach a prince is to shape the future of the realm—a task that requires both wisdom and caution."
A tutor explained, "Guiding a prince in his studies is important, but teaching him to be an upright person matters more. If, like Zhao Gao tutoring Qin Ershi in the late Qin Dynasty, you only teach harsh laws and cruel punishments—beheading, nose-cutting, or exterminating entire families—then once that prince becomes emperor, he will kill as casually as cutting grass. Was Ershi born evil? No. The root cause was that his teacher failed to lead him onto the right path."
Later, Jia Yi took up his post as Grand Tutor in the Kingdom of Liang, diligently guiding the Liang prince. But when Prince Huai of Liang tragically fell from a horse and died, Jia Yi blamed himself for failing in his duties. Overcome with grief, he wept daily and sank into despair, dying just over a year later at only thirty-three years old.
However, Jia Yi's brilliant argument has been passed down ever since. The idiom "treating human life as worthless as grass" is used to describe the brutal cruelty of reactionary ruling classes in killing people.
Source: *Book of Han*, "Biography of Jia Yi"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "草菅人命" came to describe how the brutal cruelty of reactionary ruling classes in killing people is like treating human life as worthless as grass.