星星之火,可以燎原

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Chinese

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tiny spot; speck 's; him/her/it; this
fire; angry; fierce
fire; angry; fierce; fiery; thriving
 
to set the prairie ablaze
trad. (星星之火,可以燎原) 星星 可以 燎原
simp. #(星星之火,可以燎原) 星星 可以 燎原
Literally: “a single spark can start a huge blaze”.

Etymology

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From the Book of Documents:

不可嚮邇撲滅 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
不可向迩扑灭 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: The Book of Documents, circa 4th – 3rd century BCE
Ruò huǒ zhī liáoyuán, bùkě xiàng'ěr, qí yóu kě pūmiè? [Pinyin]
When fire is burning the grassland, one (already) cannot stay near it, then how can one put it out?

Later popularized through a letter from Mao Zedong to Lin Biao (see 星星之火,可以燎原 on the Chinese Wikipedia.Wikipedia zh).

Pronunciation

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Proverb

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星星之火,可以燎原

  1. an insignificant cause can have a massive effect

See also

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