What does 愚公移山 mean?

愚公移山 (yú gōng yí shān) literally means 'the Foolish Old Man moves the mountains.' It describes tackling a huge task with patience and determination and sticking with it until it is done.

Where does the story of the Foolish Old Man come from?

It comes from the Liezi, an ancient Daoist book, in the chapter Questions of Tang (Tang wen). Its most famous line is the old man's answer: his sons and grandsons will go on without end, but the mountains will never grow any higher, so why couldn't they be levelled?

What is the moral of The Foolish Old Man Who Moved the Mountains?

With determination and steady effort, even a task that looks impossible can be done, especially when people keep at it together. Don't let those who only mock put you off.

Why is he called the Foolish Old Man?

愚 (yú) means foolish, and 公 (gōng) is a respectful word for an old man. The joke of the story is that the man everyone calls foolish shows more real wisdom than his neighbour, the Wise Old Man (智叟, zhì sǒu), who only laughs at him.

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Chinese idiom · VoiceSmiths adaptation · 3:58

The Foolish Old Man Who Moved the Mountains

Nearly ninety, the Foolish Old Man sets out to dig away two mountains. When the Wise Old Man laughs, his answer moves even heaven. A classic idiom story.

Narrator

The Foolish Old Man (Yu Gong)

Yu Gong's Wife

The Neighbour Boy

The Wise Old Man

The Mountain God

0:000:00

其他語言版本 · 2 種語言

🇨🇳 中文 🇺🇸 English

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關於這個故事

The Foolish Old Man Who Moved the Mountains tells the story behind the Chinese idiom 愚公移山 (yú gōng yí shān), literally 'the Foolish Old Man moves the mountains.' It comes from the Liezi, chapter Questions of Tang (Tang wen); the book is traditionally credited to the Warring States thinker Lie Yukou, though the text we have today is generally thought to have been put together in the third or fourth century CE. This version keeps the original story and the old man's famous reply, and gives his family, the neighbour's boy, the Wise Old Man and the snake-holding mountain god voices of their own.

故事告訴我們

Big jobs get done by steady effort, one basket at a time, even across generations. The 'foolish' old man turns out to be wiser than the 'wise' one, who only mocks.

適合

Ages 5 and up

講給孩子聽的小貼士

Build up the old man's reply step by step, sons, then grandsons, then their sons, like climbing stairs; it is the high point of the story.
Afterwards, ask: was the Foolish Old Man really foolish? Was the Wise Old Man really wise?
Keep the ending with the gods light and quick; the real lesson is in the digging.

常見問題

What does 愚公移山 mean?: 愚公移山 (yú gōng yí shān) literally means 'the Foolish Old Man moves the mountains.' It describes tackling a huge task with patience and determination and sticking with it until it is done.
Where does the story of the Foolish Old Man come from?: It comes from the Liezi, an ancient Daoist book, in the chapter Questions of Tang (Tang wen). Its most famous line is the old man's answer: his sons and grandsons will go on without end, but the mountains will never grow any higher, so why couldn't they be levelled?
What is the moral of The Foolish Old Man Who Moved the Mountains?: With determination and steady effort, even a task that looks impossible can be done, especially when people keep at it together. Don't let those who only mock put you off.
Why is he called the Foolish Old Man?: 愚 (yú) means foolish, and 公 (gōng) is a respectful word for an old man. The joke of the story is that the man everyone calls foolish shows more real wisdom than his neighbour, the Wise Old Man (智叟, zhì sǒu), who only laughs at him.