精卫填海 — Chinese idiom
精卫填海
Jīng wèi tián hǎi
Traditional: 精衛填海
Meaning
- lit. mythical bird Jingwei tries to fill the ocean with stones ; futile ambition
- task of Sisyphus
- determination in the face of impossible odds
Character by character
- 精Jīngessence, germ, spirit
- 卫wèito guard, to protect, to defend
- 填tiánto fill, to pad, to stuff
- 海hǎisea, ocean; maritime
Idioms sharing a character
- 兵精粮足 bīng jīng liáng zú
- 励精图治 lì jīng tú zhì
- 博大精深 bó dà jīng shēn
- 博而不精 bó ér bù jīng
- 古灵精怪 gǔ líng jīng guài
- 业精于勤 yè jīng yú qín
- 殚精极虑 dān jīng jí lǜ
- 殚精竭虑 dān jīng jié lǜ
- 无精打彩 wú jīng dǎ cǎi
- 无精打采 wú jīng dǎ cǎi
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.