五十步笑百步

wǔshí bù xiào bǎi bù

idiom

Meanings

1 the pot calling the kettle black
2 to mock others for a fault one shares

Characters

Examples

HSK 4

你迟到十分钟，他迟到二十分钟，你笑他就是五十步笑百步。

Nǐ chídào shí fēnzhōng, tā chídào èrshí fēnzhōng, nǐ xiào tā jiùshì wǔshí bù xiào bǎi bù.

You were ten minutes late and he was twenty; laughing at him is the pot calling the kettle black.

HSK 7-9

两个人都没考好，谁也别说谁，不过是五十步笑百步罢了。

Liǎng ge rén dōu méi kǎohǎo, shéi yě bié shuō shéi, búguò shì wǔshí bù xiào bǎi bù bàle.

Neither of them did well in the exam, so neither should criticize the other; it is only fifty paces laughing at a hundred.

Tips

history

From 《孟子·梁惠王上》. 孟子 asks 梁惠王 whether soldiers who fled fifty paces may laugh at those who fled a hundred, and the king answers that they ran away all the same. The point: the king, who thought he governed better than his neighbours, differed from them only in degree.

Stroke Order

五 wǔ

十 shí

步 bù

笑 xiào

百 bǎi