一字千金
- Literal
- one character, a thousand pieces of gold
- Figurative
- Said of writing of immense value, where every single word is worth its weight in gold; used to praise a literary work so polished that not one character could be improved.
Where does 一字千金 come from?
Lü Buwei, the powerful chancellor of the state of Qin in the late Warring States period, gathered his many retainers and scholars to compile a vast encyclopedia, the Annals of Lü Buwei (《吕氏春秋》). Proud of the result, he had it displayed at the gate of the marketplace in the capital, Xianyang, and hung a thousand pieces of gold beside it. He proclaimed the reward to anyone who could add or delete a single character from the text. According to Sima Qian's account, no one dared change a word, and so "one character, a thousand pieces of gold" came to mean a piece of writing of extraordinary worth.
Source (出处): 《史记·吕不韦列传》
How is 一字千金 used? Two examples
- 他这篇文章写得太好了，真是一字千金。
This article of his is so well written that every single word is truly worth gold.
- 老师说好文章要反复修改，做到一字千金。
The teacher says a good piece of writing must be revised again and again until every word is worth gold.
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