著手成春

简 着手成春 · 繁 著手成春
Mandarin · pinyin zhuó shǒu chéng chūn

Meanings

  1. lit. set out and it becomes spring (idiom); to effect a miracle cure (of medical operation)
  2. to bring back the dead
  3. once it starts, everything goes well
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Characters in this entry

著
zhù · zhe · manifest; (Cant.) to wear
手
shǒu · hand
成
chéng · completed, finished, fixed
春
chūn · spring; wanton
着
zhe · make move, take action
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–3–2–1 · zhuo2 shou3 cheng2 chun1

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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.

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著手成春 · zhuo2 shou3 cheng2 chun1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 95,211
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record著手成春 着手成春 [zhuo2 shou3 cheng2 chun1] /lit. set out and it becomes spring (idiom); to effect a miracle cure (of medical operation)/to bring back the dead/once it starts, everything goes well/