tiě​chǔ​mó​chéng​zhēn

perseverance will prevail

铁杵磨成针 鐵杵磨成針 tiě​chǔ​mó​chéng​zhēn
perseverance will prevail
Meaning "to grind an iron pestle into a needle"; an idiom used to describe how anything can be accomplished if one works hard and stays persistent. It refers to a story where the famous poet 李白 lǐ​bái was inspired to continue his studies after seeing an old woman trying to grind a thick iron bar into a sewing needle.

Frequency

Written text
0.058 per million

Cross-References

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Sources

Frequency data
BCC Corpus (BLCU)