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百闻不如一见

bǎi wén bù rú yī jiàn

seeing once beats hearing a hundred times

Character by character

百bǎi
hundred
闻wén
hear
不bù
not
如rú
equal
一yī
one
见jiàn
see

Example

百闻不如一见,桂林的山水真是太美了。
Seeing is believing — Guilin’s scenery really is stunning.

Tone: neutral.

Usage and origin

From 《汉书》: the old general Zhao Chongguo insisted on going to the frontier to see for himself.

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