hold one 's life on a precarious tenure
The Chinese idiom, Pinyin is m à ngz à ID à nx à, which describes a very short time. He's dying. He'll die soon. It comes from the book for King Jian'an and generals written by Chen Zi'ang of Tang Dynasty.
The origin of Idioms
In the book for the king of Jian'an and generals written by Chen Zi'ang of Tang Dynasty, it is said that "all the diseases and dropsy are fatal."
Idiom usage
In today's China, there are thousands of years of suffering and 400 trillion yuan of chronic diseases. They are very dangerous and their lives are at stake. Liang Qichao's appendix to Xinmin Shuo in Qing Dynasty
Analysis of Idioms
Life is in the morning and night
Chinese PinYin : mìng zài dàn xī
hold one 's life on a precarious tenure
Benevolent can be benevolent. rén zhě néng rén
seem ready to come out at one 's call. hū zhī yù chū