九万里风鹏正举

九萬里風鵬正舉
jiǔwàn lǐ fēng péng zhèng jǔ
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 on a ninety-thousand-li wind, the roc is just now taking flight
  2. 2 to launch into a grand, soaring enterprise
  3. 3 ninety-thousand-li wind, the peng is rising

Examples

HSK 2
Niánqīngrén zhèng dāng jiǔwànlǐfēngpéngzhèngjǔ de shíhou.
Young people are at the moment when the roc takes flight on a ninety-thousand-li wind.
HSK 6
Gōngsī gāng shàngshì, zhèngshì jiǔwànlǐfēngpéngzhèngjǔ.
The company just went public - the roc is soaring on its wind.

Tips

history
From Li Qingzhao's (李清照, Song) 《渔家傲·天接云涛连晓雾》: 九万里风鹏正举,风休住,蓬舟吹取三山去。 (On a ninety-thousand-li wind the roc is just rising - O wind, do not cease; blow my reed-boat on to the three fairy isles.) The image borrows from 《庄子·逍遥游》, where the peng () rises 九万里 before flying to the Southern Darkness. Li Qingzhao rarely wrote in this heroic register - the poem stands out in her oeuvre.
usage
(péng) is the mythological giant roc from Zhuangzi - symbol of vast ambition. 九万里 (90,000 li) is also from Zhuangzi, the height at which the peng's wings ride the wind. 正举 = 'is rising right now.'

Stroke Order

jiǔ
wàn
fēng
péng
zhèng