Food and fodder should go before troops and horses

"兵马未动，粮草先行" (bīnɡ mǎ wèi dònɡ liánɡ cǎo xiān xínɡ) is a summary of war experience by ancient Chinese people. Roughly, it means that food for soldiers and fodder for horses should be well prepared before a war starts, which underlines that "粮" (liánɡ) is an important provision for a war and the material security of a victory.

“兵马未动，粮草先行” (bīnɡ mǎ wèi dònɡ liánɡ cǎo xiān xínɡ) 这个成语是对中国古人战争经验的概括。意思是“大战之前，首先要准备好士兵们的粮食和马匹的草料”。说明“粮”（liánɡ）是作战的重要补给；是胜战的物质保障。

In modern Chinese, the idiom has been used to mean metaphorically "proper material preparation should be made before the action starts". "兵马" (bīnɡ mǎ) in the idiom has no longer referred to "troops and horses", but "the job to be done or the goal to be achieved" instead. Similarly, "粮草" (liánɡ cǎo) refer to "necessary preparations made before an action" rather than "food and fodder" originally.

在现代汉语中，人们用这个成语来比喻“做事之前要将准备工作做足、做好”。因此，成语中的“兵马”（bīnɡ mǎ）不再确指士兵和马匹。而是借用它们来指代，“想要做的事或想要达成的目标”。同理，词语“粮草”（liánɡ cǎo）并非实在的粮食和草料。它用来比喻“做事前所做的必要准备”。

Have you been enlightened anyway by this idiom?

这个成语对正在学中文的你有什么启发吗？

Chinlingo believes that Chinese might be difficult to you but that as long as you build confidence and courage to fight the war of "Chinese learning" persistently and prepare well your "粮" for the war , namely "Pinyin" and "Fundamental Characters", you will surely make a clean sweep.

Chinlingo认为，学习中文对你来说也许很难。但是，你要树立与“中文学习”打持久战的信心和勇气。接着，你要各个击破“拼音”和“基础汉字”两个关口，因为它们是你的战备“粮”（liánɡ），有了它们你的中文之战才能打得顺利，打得漂亮哦！

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