How to Read “Do not forget friends from poor and humble times”
Hinsen no majiwari wasuru bekarazu
Meaning of “Do not forget friends from poor and humble times”
This proverb teaches that you should never forget the friends and companions who supported you during poor and difficult times.
When people achieve success and gain status or wealth, they often forget their past struggles. They tend to look down on their old friendships.
But what truly matters is keeping a grateful heart toward those who reached out when you had nothing. This is what the proverb emphasizes.
This saying is especially used to warn successful people against looking down on or distancing themselves from old friends.
It also serves as a reminder for successful people to stay humble. The underlying idea is that true friendship isn’t based on profit or advantage.
Real value lies in the trust built during difficult times. Even today, this proverb resonates with many people as an important guide for understanding the essence of human relationships.
Origin and Etymology
This proverb is said to come from a true story recorded in the Chinese historical text “Book of the Later Han.”
The most popular theory traces it to the relationship between Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu), the first emperor of the Later Han Dynasty, and his friend Song Hong.
This friendship began when Liu Xiu was still poor, before becoming emperor.
After Liu Xiu became emperor, his older sister Princess Huyang lost her husband. She liked Song Hong and wanted to remarry him.
Emperor Guangwu asked Song Hong, “They say when status rises, people change friends, and when wealth comes, they change wives.”
Song Hong replied, “Do not forget friends from poor and humble times, do not cast out the wife of humble rice from the hall.”
This meant you should never forget friends from poor times or abandon the wife who shared your hardships.
“Hinsen” refers to being poor and of low social status. “Majiwari” means friendship or human relationships.
“Wasuru bekarazu” is a strong warning expression meaning “must not forget.”
This proverb teaches basic human morality: never forget your debt to those who supported you during hard times, even after gaining status and wealth.
It has been widely accepted in Japan as well.
Interesting Facts
A companion saying to this proverb is “Do not cast out the wife of humble rice from the hall.”
“Humble rice” refers to sake lees and rice bran. It means the wife who shared poor meals and hardships during difficult times.
This is the complete form of Song Hong’s words, teaching both loyalty to friends and faithfulness to one’s wife.
In Japan, this proverb was widely used in moral education texts during the Edo period.
It was valued not only among the samurai class but also among merchants. Merchant families especially considered it a virtue to remember those who helped them during their apprentice days.
They believed in staying humble even after success.
Usage Examples
- The friends who encouraged me during my student days are precious to me even now—do not forget friends from poor and humble times
- Just because you got promoted doesn’t mean you should look down on old companions—don’t you know the saying “do not forget friends from poor and humble times”?
Universal Wisdom
Humans are strange creatures. The more successful we become, the more we want to forget our past selves.
Memories of poverty and humiliating times feel inconvenient to our current shining image. At the same time, we unconsciously want to distance ourselves from people who knew us back then.
But this proverb has been passed down for hundreds of years precisely because it sees through this human weakness.
Friends who supported you when you had no status or wealth are true friends in the real sense. They helped without calculating profit or loss.
The quality of that relationship is fundamentally different from people who approach you after success.
Everyone loses sight of their surroundings when they’re strong. But a person’s true value is determined by how they lived when weak.
It’s also determined by how they treat their weak former self after becoming strong. This proverb continues to sound an alarm through the ages to human hearts easily poisoned by the sweet toxin of success.
The moment you lose a grateful heart, you become truly poor in the real sense.
When AI Hears This
When people succeed, they become surrounded by others in similar circumstances. Same income level, same industry, same values.
Network theory calls these “strong ties”—relationships where you meet frequently and interact deeply. But strong ties have a pitfall.
Since everyone holds similar information, new perspectives and opportunities stop coming in.
Sociologist Granovetter discovered that “weak ties” actually hold more value. Acquaintances you rarely see or friends in different worlds bring you information you don’t know.
Friends from poor times are exactly this. They live in a different world from your successful self, so they can access completely different information networks.
In other words, they function as a device to correct the “information bias” that successful people tend to fall into.
Even more interesting is the concept of structural holes. This refers to positions that bridge unconnected groups.
By maintaining friends from poor times, you become a rare person who can access both the successful group and the common people group.
People in this bridging position have information advantages. Research shows they actually find job changes and business opportunities more easily.
What looks like a moral tale is actually the most rational strategy.
Lessons for Today
In modern society, we tend to measure relationships by SNS follower counts or business card exchanges.
But this proverb teaches us that the real value of relationships lies in quality, not quantity.
How many people reached out to help you when you were struggling, expecting nothing in return?
As you build your career, increase your income, and rise in social status, you form new relationships. That itself is wonderful.
But don’t forget to cherish relationships with people who knew your past self. They are people who know your essence.
Success changes people. But there are parts that shouldn’t change. That’s a grateful heart.
You are who you are today not by your power alone. When you don’t forget gratitude to those who supported you during hard times, you can truly say you’re walking a rich life.
Why not reach out to an old friend sometimes? That one step will surely make your life deeper.
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