10 Chinese Idioms With Hundred (百)
Powerful Chinese idioms featuring hundred - expressions of perseverance, completeness, and large quantities.
Hundred (百) in Chinese idioms represents completeness, numerous attempts, or vast quantities. These expressions often emphasize perseverance through many trials or achieving perfection.
百折不挠
bǎi zhé bù náoUnshakeable despite adversity
Literal: Broken a hundred times, never bending
Cai Yong wrote it on Qiao Xuan's memorial stele: his nature was grave, he disliked show and held to the plain, and he had the bearing of a man who could be broken (折) a hundred (百) times and would not (不) bend (挠), who faced a crisis and could not be moved from his ground. 折 is setbacks rather than ...
Example
Despite numerous rejections, she never gave up on her dreams
尽管屡次被拒绝，她从未放弃梦想
海纳百川
hǎi nà bǎi chuānAccept all with open mind
Literal: Sea accepts hundred rivers
The sea (海) takes in (纳) a hundred (百) rivers (川) and is still the sea — that is the whole argument, and it is why the image is the sea and not a lake. The line is Lin Zexu's, the first half of a couplet normally quoted whole: 海纳百川，有容乃大；壁立千仞，无欲则刚 — the sea admits a hundred rivers, and capacity is wh...
Example
The company welcomed diverse perspectives and ideas
公司欢迎不同的观点和想法
百尺竿头
bǎi chǐ gān tóuAlready at a very high level of attainment
Literal: Hundred foot pole top
A verse of the Tang Chan master Changsha Jingcen, recorded in the Jingde Chuandenglu: a man at the top of a hundred-foot (百尺) pole (竿头) has attained something, but it is not yet real — he must step forward from there. Standing at the tip already looks like the end of the climb, which is exactly the ...
Example
Even after becoming CEO, she continued to study and improve
即使成为CEO后，她仍在不断学习提高
千锤百炼
qiān chuí bǎi liànPerfected through repeated refinement
Literal: Thousand hammers hundred forges
A thousand (千) hammer blows (锤) and a hundred (百) temperings (炼). The metallurgy is real: folded steel is worked and reheated repeatedly, each cycle driving out impurities, and the count is what distinguishes a blade from a bar of iron. Writing takes it above all, where the sense is rewriting rather...
Example
The final manuscript reflected years of writing, editing, and refinement
最终的手稿反映了多年的写作、编辑和改进
百发百中
bǎi fā bǎi zhòngPerfect accuracy every single time
Literal: Hundred shots hundred hits
This comes from the Strategies of the Warring States, on the archer Yang Youji of Chu, who could hit a willow leaf at a hundred paces so reliably that a hundred shots (百发) gave a hundred hits (百中). In the original a passer-by warns him that skill this great is exactly what will exhaust him, since he...
Example
The veteran investor made consistently successful decisions throughout the volatile market
这位资深投资者在波动的市场中始终做出成功的决策
百思不解
bǎi sī bù jiěUnable to understand despite much thought
Literal: Think a hundred times still not understand
To have turned it over a hundred (百) times in thought (思) and still not (不) got it undone (解). 解 is loosening a knot, which is the right image: this is not ignorance but a problem that has been worked at and has not come apart. The hundred counts attempts rather than anything real. Other people's be...
Example
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't understand his decision.
无论她怎么想，都对他的决定百思不解。
百年大计
bǎi nián dà jìLong-term plan; matter of lasting importance
Literal: Hundred-year great plan
A plan (计) reaching a hundred (百) years (年), on the largest (大) scale. 百年 is conventional rather than counted — Chinese uses it for any span longer than a life — so what the phrase claims is a horizon beyond the reach of the people making the decision, which is exactly the argument hardest to win. I...
Example
Education is a long-term investment in the nation's future.
教育是国家的百年大计。
百无聊赖
bǎi wú liáo làiUtterly bored; at loose ends
Literal: In every direction, nothing to lean on
A hundred (百) ways of having nothing (无) to lean on (聊赖). 聊赖 is what one depends on to get through the time, and 百 exhausts the possibilities — every direction has been looked in and none of them offers anything. That is why the phrase is heavier than boredom: what it names is closer to listlessness...
Example
With nothing to do all day, she felt utterly bored.
整天无所事事，她百无聊赖。
半斤八两
bàn jīn bā liǎngEssentially the same despite appearances
Literal: Half catty eight taels
This idiom depends on the old Chinese weight system, in which one jin was sixteen liang rather than ten. Half a jin (半斤) is therefore exactly eight liang (八两) — the same quantity, named two ways. The phrase is not about approximate similarity but about strict equality dressed up as difference, and i...
Example
The two competing proposals offered essentially the same features with different terminology
这两个相互竞争的提案基本上提供了相同的功能，只是使用了不同的术语
笨鸟先飞
bèn niǎo xiān fēiWork harder to compensate
Literal: The clumsy bird flies first
The clumsy (笨) bird (鸟) sets off first (先飞). The phrase belongs to vernacular drama and is most often said by the person about themselves, which is where its charm is: it concedes the disadvantage and then treats it as a scheduling problem rather than a verdict. That makes it a genuinely useful thin...
Example
Knowing she needed more practice, she always arrived first at training
知道自己需要更多练习，她总是第一个到达训练场
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