Scientists persevered through countless setbacks — that's how today's breakthrough became possible.
Tips
history
From Cai Yong's 《太尉乔玄碑》 (Han dynasty, c. 2nd c.): 「有百折不挠，临大节而不可夺之风」 — honoring Grand Commandant Qiao Xuan as one whose spirit 'could be bent a hundred times yet never broken.' One of the oldest attested perseverance idioms in Chinese.
memory
折 = to bend/break, 挠 = to bend aside. 'A hundred bendings, no yielding' — the bamboo-rod image: flex but don't snap.
