道高一尺,魔高一丈

Mandarin · pinyin dào gāo yī chǐ , mó gāo yī zhàng

Meanings

  1. (saying) as one climbs higher on the path of righteousness, one faces ever greater challenges from evil; no sooner does one overcome one obstacle than another arises
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

道
dào · path, road, street; method, way
高
gāo · high, tall; lofty, elevated; Kangxi radical 189
一
yī · one; a, an; alone
尺
chǐ · Chinese measure approx. 'foot'
魔
mó · demon, evil spirits; magic power
丈
zhàng · unit of length equal 3.3 meters; gentleman, man, husband
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

6character 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.

道高一尺,魔高一丈 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

道高一尺,魔高一丈 · dao4 gao1 yi1 chi3 , mo2 gao1 yi1 zhang4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 108,859
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record道高一尺,魔高一丈 道高一尺,魔高一丈 [dao4 gao1 yi1 chi3 , mo2 gao1 yi1 zhang4] /(saying) as one climbs higher on the path of righteousness, one faces ever greater challenges from evil; no sooner does one overcome one obstacle than another arises/