Yugong moves the mountain. It is a metaphor for having very strong perseverance and the spirit of not being afraid of difficulties and sacrifices and persevering to the end.
Idiom Pronunciation:
愚公移山
yú gōng yí shān
Origin book:
《列子》：操蛇之神闻之，惧其不已也，告之于帝。帝感其诚，命夸娥氏二子负二山，一厝朔东，一厝雍南。自此，冀之南，汉之阴，无陇断焉。
Origin Story:
Legend has it that in ancient times there were two great mountains, one called Taihang Mountain and one called Wangwu Mountain. In the northern mountain there lived an old man named Yugong, who was nearly 90 years old. Since he was separated by two big mountains, Yugong had to make a big detour every time he went out to the south.
One day, he gathered his whole family together and said, “I am going to spend my life with you to move the Taihang and Wangwu mountains and build an avenue to the south. What do you think?” Everyone expressed their approval, but Yugong’s old companion raised a question, “How can we move two big mountains, Taihang and Wangwu, when all of us together cannot move one small mountain? What’s more, even if we could move them, where would we put the soil and rocks that we cleared out?” After some discussion, we all agreed that we could throw the excavated soil and rocks to the sea in the east and the farthest north.
The next morning, at the beginning of the sunrise, Yugong took his children and grandchildren to start digging the mountain. Although the family could not dig much every day, they kept digging. When an old man named Wise Old Man learned of this, he came to persuade Yugong, “You are not wise to do this, and with your limited energy, how can you dig up these two mountains?” Yugong replied, “You are too stubborn to be enlightened, even if I die, I still have my son here. Even if I die, my son will still be here, and if my son dies, there will be grandchildren, and grandchildren will have children, and children will have sons. There is no end of sons and grandsons, but the mountain will not increase in height, so why can’t you dig it?”
At that time, when the mountain god saw that Yugong was not only digging the mountain, he reported the matter to the Jade Emperor. Moved by Yugong’s spirit, the Jade Emperor sent two powerful gods down to earth to carry the two mountains away. From then on, there were no more mountains in the way.
