






老骥伏枥,志在千里 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “this idiom describes an ambitious person who”. Despite their advanced age, still harbors great aspirations and is determined to achieve significant goals. Literally, “An old steed in the stable, aspiring to gallop a thousand li”.
During the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao led his army to successively eliminate local forces such as Dong Zhuo, the Yellow Turban rebels, Lü Bu, Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao, and Liu Biao, thereby gaining control over the northern territories.
Yuan Shao's sons sought refuge with the Wuhuan people in the north. At the age of 53, Cao Cao personally led a large army to thoroughly conquer 200,000 Wuhuan people.
Upon his triumphant return, he composed the poem 'Gazing at the White Gate' (步出夏门行), which contains the famous lines: '老骥伏枥,志在千里。烈士暮年,壮心不已。' meaning 'An old steed in its stable still aspires to gallop a thousand li; a valiant warrior in his later years still holds unflagging ambitions.'

Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →
Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →
Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →
Choose character parts and animate their colors, together or in stroke order
Open the tool →老骥伏枥,志在千里 (lǎo jì fú lì , zhì zài qiān lǐ) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “this idiom describes an ambitious person who”.
老骥伏枥,志在千里 is pronounced lǎo jì fú lì , zhì zài qiān lǐ in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 老骥伏枥,志在千里 means “an old steed in the stable, aspiring to gallop a thousand li”. It is used to mean “this idiom describes an ambitious person who”.
老骥伏枥,志在千里 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
骥:骏马,千里马;枥:马槽。比喻有志向的人虽然年老,仍有雄心壮志