📖 Meaning
Patience and endurance are as precious as gold. It extols the virtue of forbearance, suggesting that the ability to endure hardships and slights repeatedly is invaluable. The phrase originates from a family that maintained harmony across nine generations through the practice of tolerance.
📜 Origin Story
During the Tang Dynasty, a man named Zhang Gongyi of Yanzhou lived with nine generations of his family under one roof in remarkable harmony. When Emperor Gaozong passed through the area during the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai in the Linde era, he visited the Zhang household and asked the secret of their familial unity. Zhang Gongyi asked for pen and paper and simply wrote the character 'ren' (forbearance) over a hundred times. From this story came the saying that a hundred acts of forbearance are as precious as gold.
💡 Example Usage
家人相处贵在百忍成金，切莫因小事伤了和气。
In family life, forbearance is as precious as gold; one should never let trivial matters damage the harmony between loved ones.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 百忍成金
- Pinyin: bǎi rěn chéng jīn
- Literal Translation: hundred, endure, become, gold
- Category: Morality
- Characters: 4