皇天不負苦心人
简 皇天不负苦心人 · 繁 皇天不負苦心人Meanings
- Heaven will not disappoint the person who tries (idiom). If you try hard, you're bound to succeed eventually.
Characters in this entry
- 皇
- huáng · royal, imperial; ruler, superior
- 天
- tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 負
- Look up this written character
- 苦
- kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
- 心
- xīn · heart; mind, intelligence; soul; 5th lunar mansion, determinative star α Scorpii (Antares)
- 人
- rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
- 负
- fù · load, burden; carry, bear
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
2–1–4–4–3–1–2 · Huang2 tian1 bu4 fu4 ku3 xin1 ren2
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
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.
皇天不負苦心人 · find source passages ↗ · 皇天不负苦心人 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
wong4 tin1 bat1 fu6 fu2 sam1 jan4
Cantonese word readings for 皇天不負苦心人. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
proverb
- Heaven helps those who help themselves; Providence doesn't let down a man who does his best.
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack