愚公移山

Pronunciation: yú gōng yí shān Literal meaning: Foolish old man moves mountains

Origin & Usage

The Liezi tells of an old man of ninety whose way out was blocked by two mountains, and who began shifting (移) them (山) away a basket at a time. A widowed neighbour's small son ran over to help. The Wise Old Man of Hequ laughed at him and told him to stop, and he answered that when he died his sons would remain, and their sons after them, while the mountains would not grow any higher — 子子孙孙无穷匮也，而山不加增. A spirit heard him and had the mountains carried away. The names are the joke: 愚公 is the Foolish (愚) Old Man (公) and 智叟 the Wise Old Man, and the story hands the argument to the fool, whose foolishness turns out to be arithmetic the wise man had not done.

Examples

English: "Despite overwhelming obstacles, the small team persisted until they revolutionized the industry"

Chinese: 尽管面临巨大障碍，这个小团队坚持不懈，最终彻底改变了行业