学富五车

Pronunciation: xué fù wǔ chē Literal meaning: Rich in learning, five carts

Origin & Usage

The Zhuangzi says of the logician Hui Shi that his doctrines were many and his books filled five carts (五车). Worth knowing what that measured: books were bamboo slips bound with cord, so five cartloads is a great deal of cart and, by modern reckoning, not an enormous quantity of text. The phrase has floated free of the arithmetic and simply means learning (学) as abundant (富) as five cartloads. It is unambiguous praise, used of the genuinely well-read, and it is common enough in speech that nobody hears the carts any more.

Examples

English: "His extensive reading has filled him with knowledge equivalent to five carts of books."

Chinese: 他的阅读量之大，学富五车。