破茧成蝶 — Chinese idiom
破茧成蝶
pò jiǎn chéng dié
Traditional: 破繭成蝶
Meaning
- lit. to break through a cocoon and turn into a butterfly
- fig. to emerge strong after a period of struggle
- to get to a better place after going through difficult period
Character by character
- 破pòto break, to rout; to ruin, to destroy
- 茧jiǎncocoon; callus, blister
- 成chéngto accomplish; to become; to complete, to finish;
- 蝶diébutterfly
Idioms sharing a character
- 一语道破 yī yǔ dào pò
- 乘风破浪 chéng fēng pò làng
- 势如破竹 shì rú pò zhú
- 国破家亡 guó pò jiā wáng
- 大破大立 dà pò dà lì
- 家破人亡 jiā pò rén wáng
- 支离破碎 zhī lí pò suì
- 乐昌破镜 Lè chāng pò jìng
- 牢不可破 láo bù kě pò
- 看破红尘 kàn pò hóng chén
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.