12 Inspirational Chinese Quotes That Will Change Your Perspective

Success comes naturally

Literal: Water comes channel forms

Su Shi wrote it to a friend who was worrying ahead of events: when the water arrives (水到) the channel forms (渠成), there is no need to plan for it in advance. The image is of water finding its own course rather than an engineer cutting one. What the phrase claims is not that effort is unnecessary but...

Hope appears in darkness

Literal: Dark willows bright flowers

This comes from Lu You's Visiting a Village West of the Mountains, of the Southern Song: 山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村 — where the hills fold and the streams double back and there seems to be no road, the willows darken (柳暗) and the flowers brighten (花明), and there is another village. The turn arrives at the mome...

Stand out from crowd

Literal: Crane stands among chickens

This one comes from the Shishuo Xinyu, on Ji Shao, of whom an onlooker said that seeing him in a crowd was like seeing a crane (鹤) standing (立) among chickens (鸡群). The remark was reported to his father's friend, who replied that the onlooker had never seen the father. The distinction it names is be...

Success after long preparation

Literal: Thick accumulation thin launch

This is from Su Shi of the Song dynasty, who advised a friend to observe widely but take sparingly, to accumulate thickly and release thinly — 博观而约取，厚积而薄发. Deep (厚) accumulation (积) should issue in slight (薄) output (发). The counsel is against publishing early and often: what is put out should be a ...

Advance boldly through difficulty

Literal: Rapids bravely advance

To advance (进) bravely (勇) into the rapid current (急流). It exists as the deliberate counterpart of 急流勇退, withdrawing at the height of the rapids, and the two are used as a matched pair about careers. Where the retreat version praises knowing when to stop, this one praises pressing on precisely where...

Excellence develops with time

Literal: A great vessel is completed late

This is from the Laozi: 大方无隅，大器晚成 — the greatest square has no corners, the greatest vessel (大器) is completed (成) late (晚). The line sits in a series about great things escaping ordinary measure, so lateness here is a property of scale rather than a delay. A later anecdote applies it to a man dismis...

Excellence that outshines all others

Literal: Out of the kind, above the gathered

This one comes from the Mencius, where Confucius is described as having come out from his kind and risen above the gathered crowd — 出于其类，拔乎其萃. To emerge (出) from one's category (类) and stand above (拔) the assembly (萃) is not to be better at the same thing but to be no longer comparable. Somebody who...

Heroically reversing catastrophic situation

Literal: Pull back raging tides

Han Yu, in the piece usually called On the Advancement of Learning, has a student praise his teacher for damming the hundred rivers and turning back the wild wave (狂澜) after it has already broken — 回狂澜于既倒. The four characters used today are a later compression of that line. To use force (力) to haul ...

Boldly forge ahead through adversity

Literal: Ride wind break waves

The Book of Song records Zong Que's uncle asking the boy what he wanted from life, and the answer: I wish to ride the long wind (乘风) and break (破) ten thousand li of waves (浪). He was a child at the time, and he grew up to be one of the dynasty's leading generals. Li Bai later took the image up in a...

Press forward courageously

Literal: Once going, nothing ahead can stop

Going forward (一往) with nothing (无) in front (前). The phrase is grammatically ambiguous in a productive way: nothing ahead can be read as no obstacle standing there, or as nothing being looked at except the objective. Both senses are in use. It belongs to military language and to exhortation, and it...

Clear away confusion to see the truth

Literal: Push away clouds to see the sun

Parting (拨) the cloud (云) to see (见) the sun (日). 拨 is a hand movement, sweeping something aside, and that is what separates the phrase from the weather simply clearing: somebody did it. The sun was there the whole time, and the obstruction was the only thing that changed. An explanation that sudden...

Stand out; distinguish oneself

Literal: Tip of awl emerges from bag

The Lord of Pingyuan used the awl to dismiss Mao Sui: a man of ability in the world is like an awl in a bag, and its point shows at once — three years, and nothing has been heard of you. Mao Sui turned it round. Had he been put in the bag earlier, he said, the whole blade would have come through (颖脱...