桃李满门

Pronunciation: táo lǐ mǎn mén Literal meaning: Peaches and plums fill the gate

Origin & Usage

The Han Shi Waizhuan puts the argument plainly: plant peaches (桃) and plums (李) in spring and you sit in their shade by summer and eat the fruit by autumn; plant brambles and you get thorns. Choose the people you cultivate accordingly. Students have been 桃李 ever since, and to have them filling (满) the gate (门) is to have taught enough of them that they turn up everywhere. 门 is the school as much as the doorway, a teacher's students being his 门下. It describes a career rather than a year, and it is what gets said about a professor at retirement. The commoner form is 桃李满天下, filling the world instead of the gate.

Examples

English: "The retired professor has trained hundreds of successful scholars."

Chinese: 退休教授桃李满门，培养了数百名成功的学者。