千锤百炼

Pronunciation: qiān chuí bǎi liàn Literal meaning: Thousand hammers hundred forges

Origin & Usage

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 than inspiration; so do people who have been through enough that the phrase implies what was hammered out of them as much as what remains.

Examples

English: "The final manuscript reflected years of writing, editing, and refinement"

Chinese: 最终的手稿反映了多年的写作、编辑和改进