水滴石穿

Origin and story

The image belongs to a long tradition of comparing small repeated actions with tools. A fragment of the Shizi (尸子), preserved in the Taiping Yulan, contrasts water with a stone drill and rope with a saw. Later writing makes the consequence explicit: water that keeps dripping can wear through stone, just as repeated friction can cut wood.

Song author Luo Dajing’s Helin Yulu uses the exact expression alongside a calculation of how one coin a day accumulates into a thousand. The comparison can therefore encourage persistence, but also warn that small harmful acts add up. Its point is cumulative effect over time, not sudden force or the magical strength of a single drop.