"let a thousand flowers bloom" meaning in All languages combined

See let a thousand flowers bloom on Wiktionary

Proverb [English]

Etymology: A calque of Sinitic 百花齊放,百家爭鳴 ("let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend"), from various speeches made by Mao Zedong during the 1950s. Etymology templates: {{uder|en|zhx|-}} Sinitic, {{lang|und|百花齊放,百家爭鳴|sc=Hani}} 百花齊放,百家爭鳴 Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=let a thousand flowers bloom}} let a thousand flowers bloom, {{en-proverb|head=let a thousand flowers bloom}} let a thousand flowers bloom
  1. One should not interfere with promising developments in their early stages. Wikipedia link: Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao Zedong

Download JSON data for let a thousand flowers bloom meaning in All languages combined (2.9kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "zhx",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Sinitic",
      "name": "uder"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "und",
        "2": "百花齊放,百家爭鳴",
        "sc": "Hani"
      },
      "expansion": "百花齊放,百家爭鳴",
      "name": "lang"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A calque of Sinitic 百花齊放,百家爭鳴 (\"let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend\"), from various speeches made by Mao Zedong during the 1950s.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": "let a thousand flowers bloom"
      },
      "expansion": "let a thousand flowers bloom",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "let a thousand flowers bloom"
      },
      "expansion": "let a thousand flowers bloom",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English undefined derivations",
          "parents": [
            "Undefined derivations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Undetermined terms with redundant script codes",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant script codes",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Robert J. Sternberg, Todd I. Lubart, Defying the Crowd, page 1",
          "text": "It is probably safe to say that each year thousands of workers are victims of what might be called the “let a thousand flowers bloom” maneuver, formulated by Mao Tse-tung when he controlled the world's most populous country.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, page 195",
          "text": "There's no haggling over specs or schedules. It's simply: let a thousand flowers bloom (or 140,000 flowers and growing, to be more exact)",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Damien McLoughlin, David A. Aaker, Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives, page 268",
          "text": "One theory advanced by James Brian Quin, a strategy theorist, and others on how to find and develop successful new businesses is to 'let a thousand flowers bloom', tend those that thrive, and let the rest wither.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Michael Fullan, The Six Secrets of Change, page 12",
          "text": "But if you devolve power and resources to local entities—the “let a thousand flowers bloom” approach— you get uneven results.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One should not interfere with promising developments in their early stages."
      ],
      "id": "en-let_a_thousand_flowers_bloom-en-proverb-QmI5nHHD",
      "links": [
        [
          "interfere",
          "interfere"
        ],
        [
          "promising",
          "promising"
        ],
        [
          "developments",
          "developments"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Hundred Flowers Campaign",
        "Mao Zedong"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "let a thousand flowers bloom"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "zhx",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Sinitic",
      "name": "uder"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "und",
        "2": "百花齊放,百家爭鳴",
        "sc": "Hani"
      },
      "expansion": "百花齊放,百家爭鳴",
      "name": "lang"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A calque of Sinitic 百花齊放,百家爭鳴 (\"let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend\"), from various speeches made by Mao Zedong during the 1950s.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": "let a thousand flowers bloom"
      },
      "expansion": "let a thousand flowers bloom",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "let a thousand flowers bloom"
      },
      "expansion": "let a thousand flowers bloom",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms derived from Sinitic languages",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English undefined derivations",
        "Undetermined terms with redundant script codes"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Robert J. Sternberg, Todd I. Lubart, Defying the Crowd, page 1",
          "text": "It is probably safe to say that each year thousands of workers are victims of what might be called the “let a thousand flowers bloom” maneuver, formulated by Mao Tse-tung when he controlled the world's most populous country.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, page 195",
          "text": "There's no haggling over specs or schedules. It's simply: let a thousand flowers bloom (or 140,000 flowers and growing, to be more exact)",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Damien McLoughlin, David A. Aaker, Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives, page 268",
          "text": "One theory advanced by James Brian Quin, a strategy theorist, and others on how to find and develop successful new businesses is to 'let a thousand flowers bloom', tend those that thrive, and let the rest wither.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Michael Fullan, The Six Secrets of Change, page 12",
          "text": "But if you devolve power and resources to local entities—the “let a thousand flowers bloom” approach— you get uneven results.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One should not interfere with promising developments in their early stages."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "interfere",
          "interfere"
        ],
        [
          "promising",
          "promising"
        ],
        [
          "developments",
          "developments"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Hundred Flowers Campaign",
        "Mao Zedong"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "let a thousand flowers bloom"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.