📖 Meaning
To have fully experienced every kind of hardship and suffering. It describes someone who has endured all forms of difficulty and adversity in life. The idiom emphasizes the completeness and depth of the suffering one has gone through.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Zuo Zhuan (Chronicle of Zuo), in the 28th year of Duke Xi's reign, which states that despite dangerous obstacles and hardships, all were fully experienced. The Tang dynasty scholar Han Yu later used the phrase in his Veritable Records of Emperor Shunzong, describing how the emperor personally held bow and arrow, leading troops as a vanguard guard, having fully endured hardships. Over time the expression became a standard way to convey that one has suffered through every kind of adversity.
💡 Example Usage
他在创业的道路上备尝艰苦，但始终没有放弃。
He experienced all kinds of hardships on his entrepreneurial journey, but never gave up.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 备尝艰苦
- Pinyin: bèi cháng jiān kǔ
- Literal Translation: fully, experience, hardship, bitterness
- Category: Perseverance
- Characters: 4