Chinese idioms from the Dao De Jing
九层之台，起于累土 (jiǔ céng zhī tái, qǐ yú lěi tǔ)
Word for word from chapter 64
九层之台，起于累土, “a tower of nine stories rises from a heap of earth”, comes from chapter 64 of the Dao De Jing and means that anything high is built on a base laid little by little.
Character by character
| 九 | jiǔ | nine |
|---|---|---|
| 层 | céng | story, tier |
| 之 | zhī | of, 's (linking particle) |
| 台 | tái | terrace, tower |
| 起 | qǐ | to rise, to appear |
| 于 | yú | to, at |
| 累 | lěi | to heap up |
| 土 | tǔ | earth, soil |
| 九层之台，起于累土 | Every high achievement rests on a foundation built up bit by bit. | |
Where it comes from
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九层之台，
a tower of nine stories
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起于累土；
rises from a heap of earth;
How the meaning moved
This is the middle one of three images in chapter 64: “A tree as wide as your arms can reach grows from a tiny shoot; a tower of nine stories rises from a heap of earth; a journey of a thousand miles starts beneath your feet.” 台 is a raised terrace of rammed earth, the kind on which the palaces of the time were built; nine, the highest single number, stands for very high. 累土 is earth heaped up a load at a time.
In the chapter the images make one point: big things grow out of small ones, so “Deal with things before they exist; put them in order before disorder comes.” The tree grows by itself; the tower is something people build, so today it is often quoted about study and work: any high result needs a base, laid patiently, one basket of earth after another.
Using it today
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九层之台，起于累土，打好基础比什么都重要。
jiǔ céng zhī tái, qǐ yú lěi tǔ, dǎ hǎo jī chǔ bǐ shén me dōu zhòng yào.
A tower of nine stories rises from a heap of earth: laying a good foundation matters more than anything.
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学外语也是九层之台，起于累土，每天背十个单词，一年下来就很可观。
xué wài yǔ yě shì jiǔ céng zhī tái, qǐ yú lěi tǔ, měi tiān bèi shí gè dān cí, yī nián xià lái jiù hěn kě guān.
Learning a foreign language is also a tower rising from a heap of earth: ten words a day add up to a lot in a year.