Pí zhī bù cún, máo jiāng yān fù.

皮之不存, 毛將焉附。

Lit With the skin gone, what can the hair adhere to?

Fig A thing cannot exist without its basis.

Note [Originally from the Zuǒ Zhuàn: Xǐ Gōng 14 Nián; quoted by Mao Zedong to mean that the intellectuals, having no independent class status of their own, must attach themselves to the proletariat once the bourgeois class was destroyed.]

Topics CAUSE FOUNDATIONS INTELLECTUALS Mao Zedong POLITICS SOCIAL CLASS Xǐ Gōng 14 Nián Zuǒ_Zhuàn