Chinese idiom · 成语
呕心沥血
Meaning
To pour out heart and blood; exhaustive effort.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary metaphorTwo intense bodily metaphors combine here: giving one's heart and draining one's blood. A famous account in Li Shangyin's short biography of Li He illustrates the first. The poet collected lines on scraps of paper while out riding and completed them after returning home. His mother, seeing how much he had written, exclaimed that he would only stop after giving up his very heart.
The blood imagery also has earlier political uses, including a proclamation by the Liang emperor Yuan. The combined idiom is documented in the Song compilation Sanchao Beimeng Huibian. It praises painstaking devotion, not literal injury, and is not restricted to poetry.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
这本地方史是几位退休老师呕心沥血十年的成果。
This local history is the result of ten years of painstaking work by several retired teachers.
Strong praise for sustained intellectual or creative dedication.