工欲善其事,必先利其器

Mandarin · pinyin gōng yù shàn qí shì , bì xiān lì qí qì

Meanings

  1. To do a good job, an artisan needs the best tools (idiom). Good tools are prerequisite to the successful execution of a job
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

工
gōng · labor, work; worker, laborer
欲
yù · desire, want, long for; intend
善
shàn · good, virtuous, charitable, kind
其
qí · his, her, its, their; that
事
shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
必
bì · surely, most certainly; must
先
xiān · first, former, previous
利
lì · gains, advantage, profit, merit
器
qì · receptacle, vessel; instrument
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

9character links
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

工欲善其事,必先利其器 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

工欲善其事,必先利其器 · gong1 yu4 shan4 qi2 shi4 , bi4 xian1 li4 qi2 qi4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 36,481
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record工欲善其事,必先利其器 工欲善其事,必先利其器 [gong1 yu4 shan4 qi2 shi4 , bi4 xian1 li4 qi2 qi4] /To do a good job, an artisan needs the best tools (idiom). Good tools are prerequisite to the successful execution of a job/