投笔从戎 — Chinese idiom
投笔从戎
tóu bǐ cóng róng
Traditional: 投筆從戎
Meaning
- to lay down the pen and take up the sword
- to join the military (esp. of educated person)
Character by character
- 投tóuto pitch, to throw; to bid, to invest
- 笔bǐpen, pencil, writing brush; to compose, to write;
- 从cóngfrom, by, since, whence, through
- 戎róngarms, armaments; military affairs
Idioms sharing a character
- 五体投地 wǔ tǐ tóu dì
- 情投意合 qíng tóu yì hé
- 投桃报李 tóu táo bào lǐ
- 投石问路 tóu shí wèn lù
- 投缳自缢 tóu huán zì yì
- 投袂而起 tóu mèi ér qǐ
- 投鞭断流 tóu biān duàn liú
- 投鼠忌器 tóu shǔ jì qì
- 明珠暗投 míng zhū àn tóu
- 举手投足 jǔ shǒu tóu zú
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.