📖 Meaning
It takes a hundred years to cultivate a person. It means that nurturing talent is a long-term endeavor requiring sustained effort and patience. It is a variant of the more common idiom "百年树人."
📜 Origin Story
The phrase echoes a passage in the ancient text Guanzi (《管子·权修》), a Warring States period work attributed to the statesman Guan Zhong of Qi: "For a year's plan, plant grain; for ten years' plan, plant trees; for a lifetime's plan, cultivate people." The exact wording "百载树人" appears in the fifth act of the Cantonese opera Sou Shuyuan (《搜书院》), where a character declares that cultivating people is his lifelong aspiration. Through this lineage, the idiom underscores that educating and developing talent is a project spanning generations.
💡 Example Usage
教育是民族复兴的根本，正所谓百载树人，必须从长计议。
Education is the foundation of national rejuvenation; as the saying goes, cultivating talent takes a hundred years, so it must be planned for the long term.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 百载树人
- Pinyin: bǎi zǎi shù rén
- Literal Translation: hundred, years, cultivate, people
- Category: Education
- Characters: 4