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行百里者半九十

Mandarin · pinyin xíng bǎi lǐ zhě bàn jiǔ shí

lit. ninety li is merely a half of a hundred li journey (idiom)
fig. the closer one is to completing a task, the tougher it gets
a task is not done until it's done

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Characters in this entry

行: xíng · go; walk; move, travel; circulate; Kangxi radical 144
百: bǎi · one hundred; numerous, many
里: lǐ · unit of distance; village; lane; Kangxi radical 166
者: zhě · that which; he who; those who
半: bàn · half
九: jiǔ · nine
十: shí · ten, tenth; complete; perfect

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–3–3–3–4–3–2 · xing2 bai3 li3 zhe3 ban4 jiu3 shi2

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

proverb

Things become more difficult when we approach closer to success

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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