三 折 肱 为 良 医

sān zhé gōng wéi liáng yīdictionary entry

(lit.) break one's arm three times to become a good doctor (idiom) / (fig.) experience is a good teacher

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-c686651ad4b67953. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

三折肱為良醫 三折肱为良医 [san1 zhe2 gong1 wei2 liang2 yi1] /(lit.) break one's arm three times to become a good doctor (idiom)/(fig.) experience is a good teacher/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 三折肱為良醫

三
sān
three / 3
Sān
surname San
折
shé
to snap / to break (a stick, a bone etc) / (bound form) to sustain a loss (in business)
zhē
to turn sth over / to turn upside down / to tip sth out (of a container)
zhé
to break / to fracture / to snap / to suffer loss / to bend / to twist / to turn / to change direction / convinced / to convert into (currency) / discount / rebate / tenth (in price) / classifier for theatrical scenes / to fold / accounts book
肱
gōng
upper arm / arm
为
wéi
as (in the capacity of) / to take sth as / to act as / to serve as / to behave as / to become / to be / to do / by (in the passive voice)
wèi
because of / for / to
良
liáng
good / very / very much
医
yī
medical / medicine / doctor / to cure / to treat

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.