He toiled his whole life and finally achieved success.
Tips
usage
耕 is classical in origin but still used today in compounds: 耕地 (arable land; to plow), 耕种 (to farm), 耕耘 (to plow and weed - used figuratively to mean diligent effort). 耕耘 is common as a metaphor for hard work.
Plow radical on the left, the indexing radical. 耒 depicts the wooden hand-plow of antiquity - a forked branch fitted with a digging head. The radical anchors 耕 in the farming-tool family with 耙 harrow, 耘 to weed, 耧 seed-drill.
Right side 井 supplies the sound - jǐng drifting to gēng. There is also a semantic echo: 井 pictures the gridded fields of the well-field system (井田) in which farmers plowed in geometric plots. So the phonetic doubles as a memory hook for the agrarian setting.
