十年辛苦不寻常

十年辛苦不尋常

shíniánxīnkǔbùxúncháng

phrase

Meanings

1 ten years of bitter toil — no ordinary thing
2 (fig.) a decade of labor poured into a great work; craftsmanship earned through sustained hardship
3 (lit.) ten-year bitter-suffering not ordinary

Characters

year (十年 = ten years)

suffering (辛苦 = hard toil)

usual (寻常 = ordinary)

Examples

曹雪芹自题红楼梦：字字看来皆是血，十年辛苦不寻常。

Cáo Xuěqín zì tí Hónglóumèng: zì zì kàn lái jiē shì xuè, shí nián xīnkǔ bù xúncháng.

Cao Xueqin inscribed in his own Dream of the Red Chamber: 'Each word, read closely, is blood; ten years of toil — no ordinary thing.'

这本词典的编纂真是十年辛苦不寻常。

Zhè běn cídiǎn de biānzuǎn zhēn shì shí nián xīnkǔ bù xúncháng.

Compiling this dictionary really was 'ten years of bitter toil — no ordinary thing.'

Tips

history

From 曹雪芹 (Cao Xueqin, Qing) self-inscription on 《红楼梦》 (Dream of the Red Chamber, ~1754): 满纸荒唐言，一把辛酸泪。都云作者痴，谁解其中味？字字看来皆是血，十年辛苦不寻常 (A page of reckless words, a handful of bitter tears. All say the author is mad — who understands the flavor within? Each word seen closely is blood; ten years of toil, nothing ordinary). Cao worked and reworked the novel in poverty over roughly a decade before his early death.

usage

Usually paired with 字字看来皆是血 — the couplet is the most famous statement of authorial labor in Chinese literature. Often quoted about any multi-year magnum opus: dictionary, encyclopedia, translation, film.

Stroke Order

十 shí

年 nián

辛 xīn

苦 kǔ

不 bù

寻 xún

常 cháng