安得广厦千万间

安得廣廈千萬間

ān dé guǎng shà qiān wàn jiān

quotation

Meanings

1 how could I obtain ten million grand houses — an anguished wish that all the poor might have shelter
2 literally: how to get spacious mansions, thousands and ten-thousands of rooms

Characters

安

ān

how (classical interrogative)

tall building / mansion

Examples

看到住房困难的家庭，不禁让人想起'安得广厦千万间'。

Kàndào zhùfáng kùnnán de jiātíng, bùjīn ràng rén xiǎngqǐ ' ān dé guǎng shà qiān wàn jiān '.

Seeing families with housing difficulties, one can't help but think of the line 'how could I get a million great houses?'

政府推动保障房建设，正是当代的'安得广厦千万间'。

Zhèngfǔ tuīdòng bǎozhàngfáng jiànshè, zhèngshì dāngdài de ' ān dé guǎng shà qiān wàn jiān '.

The government's push to build affordable housing is the modern version of Du Fu's wish for 'a million great houses'.

Tips

history

From Du Fu's (杜甫) Tang poem 《茅屋为秋风所破歌》 (Song of My Thatched Cottage Wrecked by the Autumn Wind), 761 CE. After autumn wind blew the roof off his own leaky cottage in Chengdu, Du Fu wrote the climactic cry: 安得广厦千万间，大庇天下寒士俱欢颜 — 'How could I get a million grand houses to shelter all the cold scholars under heaven and make them smile?' One of the most celebrated expressions of social conscience in Chinese poetry.

usage

Paired couplet — the full line continues 大庇天下寒士俱欢颜. Standard reference in writing about public housing, urban poverty, and engaged scholarship. 厦 here is shà (a large building), not xià (the surname / 厦门).

Stroke Order

安 ān

得 de

广 guǎng

厦 shà

千 qiān

万 wàn

间 jiān