凿壁偷光

鑿壁偷光
záobì-tōuguāng
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 to bore through the wall to borrow a neighbor's light
  2. 2 to study hard in spite of poverty

Examples

HSK 3
Lǎoshī gěi wǒmen jiǎng le záobì-tōuguāng de gùshi.
The teacher told us the story of the boy who bored through the wall to borrow light.
HSK 7-9
Xiànzài búyòng záobì-tōuguāng le, kě dúshū háishi yào kào kèkǔ.
Nobody has to bore through a wall for light any more, but studying still takes hard work.

Tips

history
From 《西京杂记》: the Han scholar 匡衡 loved to read but could not afford candles, so he made a hole in the wall and read by the light from his neighbor's house. He later became chancellor.

Stroke Order

凿 záo
壁 bì
偷 tōu
光 guāng