Chinese idioms from the Dao De Jing
慎终如始 (shèn zhōng rú shǐ)
Word for word from chapter 64
慎终如始 (shèn zhōng rú shǐ), “be as careful at the end as at the beginning”, comes from chapter 64 of the Dao De Jing and means to stay careful until a task is truly done.
Character by character
| 慎 | shèn | careful |
|---|---|---|
| 终 | zhōng | the end |
| 如 | rú | as if, like |
| 始 | shǐ | the beginning |
| 慎终如始 | Stay as careful at the end of an undertaking as at its start, and it will not fail. | |
Where it comes from
-
慎终如始，则无败事。
Be as careful at the end as at the beginning, and nothing will be spoiled.
How the meaning moved
The four characters open line 14 of chapter 64: “Be as careful at the end as at the beginning, and nothing will be spoiled.” The line just before gives the reason: “People at their work often spoil it when it is almost done.” Earlier the same chapter tells us to deal with things while they are small, “A tree as wide as your arms can reach grows from a tiny shoot”; here it asks for the same care at the other end, when a thing is nearly finished and attention slips.
The modern meaning has hardly moved. 慎终如始 is said of the last stage of any work, a project, an exam, a long campaign, and it was already used as advice to a ruler in the Tang dynasty, in a memorial by the consort Xu Hui urging Emperor Taizong to stop his wars and building works.
Using it today
-
项目快完成了，大家更要慎终如始，别在最后出错。
xiàng mù kuài wán chéng le, dà jiā gèng yào shèn zhōng rú shǐ, bié zài zuì hòu chū cuò.
The project is nearly done, so we must be as careful now as at the start, and not slip up at the end.
-
考试的最后几道题也要慎终如始，认真检查一遍。
kǎo shì de zuì hòu jǐ dào tí yě yào shèn zhōng rú shǐ, rèn zhēn jiǎn chá yī biàn.
Take the last few questions of the exam as carefully as the first, and check them through.