千方百计
- Literal
- a thousand methods and a hundred schemes
- Figurative
- To use every possible means, to try every trick in the book to achieve something.
Where does 千方百计 come from?
It does not come from a specific tale but is a set phrase built from two parallel pairs, "a thousand methods" and "a hundred schemes," where the numbers are not literal but evoke a vast quantity. It already appears in this form in the 《朱子语类》, a record of the conversations of the Neo-Confucian master Zhu Xi (1130-1200) with his disciples, compiled by Li Jingde in 1270.
Source (出处): 《朱子语类》
How is 千方百计 used? Two examples
- 为了让女儿吃药，妈妈千方百计地哄她。
To get her daughter to take the medicine, the mother coaxed her by every possible means.
- 他千方百计想找到那本绝版的旧书。
He tried every possible way to track down that out-of-print old book.
In Wanyu, all 400 chengyu have audio on every sentence, and you can save them to your decks and review them with spaced repetition. Free.
