差若毫釐,謬以千里

Chinese

differ from; short of; to lack
differ from; short of; to lack; poor; send; a messenger; a mission; to commission; uneven; difference; discrepancy; to differ; error; to err; to make a mistake
 
to seem; like; as
to seem; like; as; if
 
hair; drawing brush; (in the) least
hair; drawing brush; (in the) least; one thousandth
 
centi- absurd; erroneous
to use; according to; so as to
to use; according to; so as to; in order to; by; with; because; Israel (abbrev.)
 
any great distance; fine horse; fine steed; fast horse
 
trad. (差若毫釐,謬以千里) 千里
simp. (差若毫厘,谬以千里) 千里

Etymology

From the Book of Rites, which apparently paraphrases the Classic of Changes:

Pronunciation

  • Mandarin
    (Pinyin): chāruòháolí, miùyǐqiānlǐ
    (Zhuyin): ㄔㄚ ㄖㄨㄛˋ ㄏㄠˊ ㄌㄧˊ , ㄇㄧㄡˋ ㄧˇ ㄑㄧㄢ ㄌㄧˇ
  • Cantonese (Jyutping): caa1 joek6 hou4 lei4, mau6 ji5 cin1 lei5

Proverb

差若毫釐,謬以千里

  1. small discrepancies lead to great errors

Descendants

  • Vietnamese: sai một li đi một dặm (calque)