DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
不管白貓黑貓，捉住老鼠就是好貓
简 不管白猫黑猫，捉住老鼠就是好猫 · 繁 不管白貓黑貓，捉住老鼠就是好貓Mandarin · pinyin bù guǎn bái māo hēi māo , zhuō zhù lǎo shǔ jiù shì hǎo māo
Meanings
- it doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black; as long as it catches mice it's a good cat (variant of a Sichuanese saying used in a speech by Deng Xiaoping 鄧小平 Dèng Xiǎo píng in 1962, usually associated with his economic reforms starting in 1978, in which pragmatism was favored over ideological purity)
Characters in this entry
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 管
- guǎn · pipe, tube, duct; woodwind music
- 白
- bái · white; pure, unblemished; bright
- 貓
- māo · cat
- 黑
- hēi · black; dark; evil, sinister; Kangxi radical 203
- 捉
- zhuō · grasp, clutch; catch, seize
- 住
- zhù · reside, live at, dwell, lodge; stop
- 老
- lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
- 鼠
- shǔ · rat, mouse; Kangxi radical 208
- 就
- jiù · just, simply; to come, go to; to approach, near
- 是
- shì · indeed, yes, right; to be; demonstrative pronoun, this, that
- 好
- hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
- 猫
- māo · cat
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