九万里风鹏正举

九萬里風鵬正舉
jiǔwànlǐfēngpéngzhèngjǔ
phrase

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 (lit.) ninety-thousand-li wind, the peng is rising

Examples

Niánqīng rén zhèng dāng jiǔwàn lǐ fēng péng zhèng jǔ de shíhou.
Young people are at the moment when the roc takes flight on a ninety-thousand-li wind.
Gōngsī gāng shàngshì, zhèngshì jiǔwàn lǐ fēng péng zhèng jǔ.
The company just went public — the roc is soaring on its wind.

Tips

history
From Li Qingzhao's (李清照, Song) 《·》: 九万。(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》, where the peng () rises 九万 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 (90,000 li) is also from Zhuangzi, the height at which the peng's wings ride the wind. = 'is rising right now.'

Stroke Order

jiǔ
wàn
fēng
péng
zhèng