精耕细作

精耕細作
jīnggēng-xìzuò
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 intensive and meticulous farming (idiom)
  2. 2 careful, painstaking cultivation
  3. 3 (fig.) to work with attention to detail

Examples

HSK 6
Nóngmín jīnggēng-xìzuò, shōucheng niánnián tígāo.
The farmers till carefully and intensively, and yields rise year by year.
HSK 7-9
Zuò nèiróng yě yào jīnggēng-xìzuò, bùnéng cūzhìlànzào.
Content work also needs careful cultivation - you can't just churn things out.

Tips

culture
Originally describes traditional Chinese smallholder agriculture - small plots farmed with painstaking labor instead of extensive mechanization. The metaphor now covers any craft requiring care: editorial work, product design, regional marketing.
usage
Positive. Contrast with 粗制滥造 (shoddy mass production) and 广种薄收 (plant wide, reap thin). In business writing, 深耕 ('deep cultivation of a market') is a closely related modern spin-off.

Stroke Order

jīng
gēng
zuò