千里の道も一歩より senri no michi mo ippo yori A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

千里の道も一歩より Original Scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Abstract

千里の道も一歩より, even a road of a thousand ri begins from one step, is a Japanese proverb that grew, on this study's reading, from the third of three images in a chapter of the Laozi on acting before things have grown. This study follows the image into Japanese by a road it proposes, through a motto of the Tang poet Bai Juyi and the kana preface of the Kokinshū, the first imperial anthology of Japanese poems, and finds the proverb's own wording in the prose of the Zen monk Takuan, who died in 1646, and in print in Kaibara Ekiken's book of everyday precepts of 1708, before it runs through moral readers, books on conduct and the young, and sermons to the dictionaries today. In English the Laozi's line has a thousand miles from John Chalmers in 1868, the earliest English translation read here, and a single step from James Legge in 1891, the first of those read here to write it; the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs first cites the popular sentence from Lionel Giles's translation of 1904, and the Japanese proverb itself was in English by 1872. The passages quoted here from Takuan on put it to learning, to conduct and to first steps, and none of the users quoted names Laozi; the dictionaries do, from Fujii's of 1910.

A reading

My reading is that 千里の道も一歩より is a Japanese proverb grown from an image in the Laozi, the Chinese classic of the Way, and not a translation of it. The Laozi's sixty-fourth chapter gives a journey of a thousand li begins beneath the feet as the third of three images in an argument about acting before trouble has grown, which goes on to take as much care at the end as at the beginning; the proverb keeps the journey and drops the warning. Two texts lie between them in time. The Tang poet Bai Juyi made the image a motto for his own conduct, and the kana preface of the Kokinshū, the first imperial anthology of Japanese poems, turned it to the growth of poetry. That the preface is based on these lines of Bai Juyi is the report of its translator, Laurel Rasplica Rodd, and of the commentator Kaneko Motoomi in 1927; that the proverb came into Japanese by this road is my joining of the witnesses, since none of them says so, and its strongest support is Kaibara Ekiken's book of everyday precepts of 1708, which glosses the proverb with a clause close to the preface's, 出でたつ足下よりはじまりて. The step the proverb adds to the Laozi was already in a saying of the Chan (Zen) masters of the Song dynasty. From the Zen monk Takuan, before 1646, it has been a maxim of learning and small beginnings. The English title, the popular sentence that the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs first cites from Lionel Giles's translation of 1904, is right in sense and is the line the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs enters as an English proverb; what it cannot carry is the chapter's warning or the Japanese road the proverb took. The readings I do not take, that the proverb is the Laozi's line put into Japanese and that the English sentence is Confucius's, to whom it is sometimes given, are set out in the historical record below.

Overview

The sense. The tradition holds one sense: great things are built from small beginnings, close at hand. What changes is the frame around it. In the Laozi the image is one of three in an argument about the sage who acts before trouble has grown and who takes as much care at the end as at the beginning. Bai Juyi turned it into a motto for his own conduct, and the Kokinshū preface turned it to the growth of poetry. In Japanese the proverb is put to learning (Takuan's one character today and one tomorrow, Ekiken's study of the Way), to a woman's conduct, a child's lessons, a sermon's self-examination, an admiral's first battle. The dictionaries name Laozi as the source; almost none of the proverb's users do.

The words. The Chinese line is 千里之行，始於足下: a journey of a thousand li begins beneath the feet. It has no road and no step. The Japanese proverb has both, and the step was already in Chinese: the Chan masters of the Song said 欲行千里，一步為初, to go a thousand li, one step is the beginning. 千里 is a thousand ri, a very long way; the Japanese ri and the Chinese li are different lengths and neither is a mile. 道, road, stands where the Laozi has 行, journey, the same image seen from the other end. も is even: even a road of a thousand ri. 一歩, one step, stands where the Laozi has 足下, beneath the feet. Hepburn's dictionary of 1872 reads it ippo; the women's reader of 1755 glosses it ひとあし, hitoashi, one footstep. より is from, and it is the older particle, the one Takuan and Ekiken write; から is in print by 1889, and every current dictionary headword in the proverb's own form has it. The verb, 起こる or 始まる, arises or begins, varies, and the proverb often drops it. So there are three Japanese forms: the Chinese read as Chinese, 千里の行も足下に始まる, which is a dictionary headword and what a biographer writes in 1915; the proverb with より, a saying before 1646; and the proverb with から, by 1889 and the headword today. The line as words: even a thousand-ri road, from one step.

The text in English. The earliest English read here is Chalmers's thousand miles of 1868, then Legge's single step of 1891, and Giles's translation of 1904 joins the two; the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs gives Giles as the popular sentence's first citation. The Japanese proverb itself is in Hepburn's dictionary of 1872 and in the mid-century proverb collections.

The historical record

The Laozi, chapter sixty-four. The line is the third of three images in a chapter about acting on things before they have grown: 合抱之木，生於毫末；九層之臺，起於累土；千里之行，始於足下 ^[1]. James Legge's translation of 1891: The tree which fills the arms grew from the tiniest sprout; the tower of nine storeys rose from a (small) heap of earth; the journey of a thousand lî commenced with a single step ^[2]. Further on, the chapter says 慎終如始，則無敗事, be as careful at the end as at the beginning and nothing will fail; the proverb keeps the journey and drops the warning.

Bai Juyi 白居易, A Second Motto for the Right of My Seat (續座右銘). The Tang poet made the image a rule for himself: 千里始足下，高山起微塵，吾道亦如此, a thousand li begins at the feet, a high mountain rises from fine dust; my way is like this too ^[3]. He sets a mountain where the Laozi has a tower, and the pairing of the far road and the high mountain is what the Kokinshū preface takes.

The Kokinshū 古今和歌集, commissioned 905, the kana preface. 遠き處も出で立つ足もとよりはじまりて、年月をわたり、高き山も、麓の塵ひぢよりなりて、天雲たなびくまで生ひのぼれるが如くに、この歌もかくの如くなるべし, as a distant place begins from the foot that sets out and takes months and years, as a high mountain grows from the dust and mud at its foot until it rises to the trailing clouds, so it must be with this poetry ^[4]. Laurel Rasplica Rodd's translation notes that the passage is based on Bai Juyi's lines ^[5]; Kaneko Motoomi's commentary of 1927, on the page that prints the preface, says the same: 白樂天が座右銘に「千里始足下、高山起微塵、吾道亦如此、行之貴日新」とあるを本文にして, taking as its text Bai Juyi's motto ^[4]. The image is in Japanese prose in the preface of the first imperial anthology; the proverb's wording is not there yet.

Before 1646. Takuan Sōhō 沢庵宗彭 (1573–1646), Reirōshū (玲瓏集). The Zen monk, explaining 作, the working of things, one of the ten suchnesses (十如是): けふ一字まなび、あす一字まなび、たゆまずしてなさば、いかなる事もなしつべし。千里の道も一歩より起るといふがごとし, learn one character today and one character tomorrow, and if you do not slacken there is nothing you cannot do; it is as they say, even a thousand-ri road arises from one step ^[6]. The entries around it on the ten suchnesses explain verses Takuan composed on them, and this one, on 作, ends とよみて、作の心をあらはし侍る, so I composed it, and showed the heart of 作. The proverb with より, called a saying, in his prose. The text here is a 1934 edition.

1708. Kaibara Ekiken 貝原益軒, Yamato zokkun (大和俗訓), a book of everyday precepts. 千里の道も、一歩よりはじまる。たとへば、遠き所に行くに、出でたつ足下よりはじまりて、力め行きて巳まざれば、屆かざることなし。學んで道に至るも、又かくの如くなるべし, even a thousand-ri road begins from one step: going to a distant place begins from the foot that sets out, and if you strive on without stopping there is nowhere you do not reach; to learn and arrive at the Way must be so too ^[7]. Ekiken glosses the proverb with a clause close to the Kokinshū preface's, 出でたつ足下よりはじまりて, where the preface has 出で立つ足もとよりはじまりて. The text here is a 1911 edition.

The proverb collections. Fujii Otoo's 藤井乙男 dictionary of proverbs of 1910 gathers the early witnesses under 千里ノ道モ一歩ヨリ起ル: the Kokinshū preface; the kyōgen Irumagawa (入間川), whose lord, travelling home from the capital, says so as he reaches Suruga; the Laozi; and the proverb collection 本朝俚諺, which sets the proverb under a line of the 大戴禮, 不積跬歩、無以致千里, without piling up half-steps there is no reaching a thousand li ^[8]. In a 1918 edition of kyōgen the lord's lines read 千里の道も一歩よりおこると、都を出る時は遙〴〵の樣に思ふたれども、はや駿河の國迄は來たな, even a thousand-ri road arises from one step, as they say: when I left the capital I thought it a long, long road, and already I have come as far as Suruga ^[9]; which text of the play that edition follows is not stated, and its date is not known here.

1755. 晩香散人玉枝子, Instructive Poems for Women (女朗詠教訓歌), an illustrated moral reader with pictures by Nishikawa Sukenobu 西川祐信. The proverb credited to the ancients: 古人も千里の道も一歩よりはじまるといへば善人となるもあらき人になるもこゝろひとつのわざなれば, as the ancients say, even a thousand-ri road begins from one step, so becoming a good person or a rough one is the work of one heart alone ^[10]. The leaf glosses 一歩 as ひとあし. It is a homily on small faults growing large; Laozi is not named.

1876 to 1893. Meiji books on conduct and the young. Books on hygiene, morals and the training of the young, and one on the Lotus Sutra, carry the proverb in the より form, as the National Diet Library's search shows them ^[11].

1889. 泉本宗三郎, ed., Proverbs (ことわざ). The earliest witness here for the modern particle: 千里の道も一歩から, seen as the National Diet Library's full-text index shows it ^[12].

1908. 河崎顕了, Sermons for the Home (家庭説教). 千里の道も一歩から始まるものとすれば、私共は念々に反省し刻々に注意して, if even a thousand-ri road begins from one step, then we must examine ourselves thought by thought and take care moment by moment ^[13]. The proverb is put to self-examination, thought by thought.

1915. Yokoyama Kendō 横山健堂, Admiral Tōgō (大将東郷). The Chinese line read as Chinese, at an admiral's first battle: 千里の行も足下に始まる。遠行の第一歩は、愼重の覺悟あるべし, a thousand-ri journey begins beneath the feet; the first step of a long road should be taken with careful resolve ^[14]. By 1936 the National Diet Library's digitized books and periodicals carry 千里の道も一歩 in at least a thousand items, the most its full-text index returns for one phrase.

The dictionaries today. デジタル大辞泉 has two headwords. Under 千里の道も一歩から: 遠い旅路も第一歩から始まる。どんな大事業も手近なところから始まることのたとえ, even a distant journey begins with the first step; a figure for how any great undertaking begins close at hand, with 千里の道も一歩より起こる after it, which 故事成語を知る辞典 marks as a variant (異形) ^[15]. Under 千里の行も足下に始まる, marked 《「老子」六四から》: どんな遠大な事業も手近なところから始まるというたとえ, with 千里の道も一歩より始まる printed after it ^[16]. 故事成語を知る辞典 gives the sense as 大きなことを成し遂げるには、手近なところから着実に始めていくことが肝要であることのたとえ, a figure for how, to accomplish something great, what matters is to begin steadily from what is near, notes that the Laozi said it of troubles, which are easier to meet while they are new, where it is now said of undertakings, and gives as its example a line from Shiba Ryōtarō's novel 国盗り物語 (1963–66): いっぺんには天下はとれぬ。千里の道も一歩からだという, you cannot take the realm in one go; a thousand-ri road, from one step, as they say ^[15].

What is not a source. The English saying is sometimes given to Confucius, wrongly; the Laozi is its source. The Japanese proverb is not a translation of the Laozi: the image is in Japanese prose in the Kokinshū preface, which its translator and Kaneko trace to Bai Juyi, and the step is in the Chan saying 欲行千里，一步為初, which the Song masters Yangqi Fanghui 楊岐方會, Yuanwu 圓悟 and Dahui 大慧 all use ^[17]. The chapter's own conclusion, care at the end as at the beginning, is the line's context and not part of the proverb. The ancients of 1755 and as they say in Takuan and the kyōgen are a proverb's way of citing, not a source.

The text in English

1868. John Chalmers, The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality, of "The Old Philosopher," Lau-Tsze, chapter LXIV, page 50. The tree that fills the arms grew from a slender twig. The castle of nine stories was raised from a mound of earth. The journey of a thousand miles commenced with one pace. The earliest English Laozi read here already turns the li into miles ^[18].

1872. James Curtis Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, second edition, page 141. Under 歩, a step in walking: Sen ri no michi mo ippo yori hajimu, a journey of a thousand miles is begun by taking one step. The Japanese proverb in English, with miles, as in Chalmers ^[19].

1884. Frederic Henry Balfour, Taoist Texts. A journey of a thousand li begins with a foot's pace ^[20].

1891. James Legge, The Texts of Taoism, chapter 64, page 108. The journey of a thousand lî commenced with a single step. Legge supplies a single step for 足下, beneath the feet, the first translator here to write it ^[2].

1904. Lionel Giles, The Sayings of Lao Tzŭ, page 51. The tree which needs two arms to span its girth sprang from the tiniest shoot. Yon tower, nine storeys high, rose from a little mound of earth. A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step. Chalmers's miles and Legge's single step in one sentence ^[21]. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs gives it as the English proverb's first citation ^[22].

1934. Arthur Waley, The Way and Its Power, chapter LXIV. The journey of a thousand leagues began with what was under the feet. Waley keeps 足下 literal and turns the li into leagues. He prints the three images inside quotation marks, as a saying the chapter quotes, and does the same for its Heed the end no less than the beginning, against which he notes similar sayings in the Book of History ^[23].

1963. D. C. Lau, Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching, Penguin, chapter LXIV. A tree that can fill the span of a man's arms / Grows from a downy tip; / A terrace nine storeys high / Rises from hodfuls of earth; / A journey of a thousand miles / Starts from beneath one's feet. Lau keeps miles and returns the last line to the Chinese, beneath one's feet, where Legge had a single step ^[24].

1965. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, page 162. Senri no michi mo ippo yori su: "Even a journey of a thousand ri must start with one step." A "ri," the unit of distance in Japan, is 2.44 miles. The above proverb means everything must be done patiently in regular sequence ^[25].

The popular form. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step has its first citation in Giles's translation, which reads began ^[21][22]. The English Wikipedia article on the phrase records the misattribution to Confucius ^[26].

Today. The stored title is the popular English of the Chinese line, and it sits closer to the Japanese proverb than to the Laozi: it has the step, which the Laozi does not. Miles for 里 is the one liberty: Chalmers, the earliest English translator read here, took it in 1868, and Giles, Lau and the popular sentence keep it, where Balfour and Legge keep li and Waley has leagues. JMdict, the open Japanese–English dictionary, gives the popular sentence, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, for both Japanese headwords, 千里の道も一歩から and 千里の行も足下に始まる ^[27]. What a rendering of this line must keep is the pairing of the very long and the very small, and the word begins.

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

千里の道も一歩よりVB4CBlock

千里の道も一歩よりVC5BCursive

千里の道も一歩よりVD7BEri's Choice

千里の道も一歩よりVS4CSemi-Cursive

References

1. 『老子』第六十四章, at the Chinese Text Project. https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing#n11655
2. James Legge, translator, The Texts of Taoism, Part I, The Sacred Books of the East 39, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1891, chapter 64, pp. 107–108. https://archive.org/details/wg939/page/n134
3. 白居易「續座右銘」, in 祝穆 編『新編古今事文類聚』. National Diet Library pid 11892738, scan 6. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11892738/1/6
4. 「古今和歌集序」, in 金子元臣『古今和歌集評釈』, 明治書院, 1927, p. 56. National Diet Library pid 1119997, scan 40. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1119997/1/40
5. Laurel Rasplica Rodd with Mary Catherine Henkenius, translators, Kokinshū: A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern, Princeton University Press, 1984 (Cheng & Tsui paperback, 1996), Japanese Preface, note 16.
6. 沢庵宗彭『玲瓏集』十如是, in 伊藤康安 編解『新釈沢庵和尚法語』, 昭和書房, 1934, p. 188. National Diet Library pid 1259004, scan 105. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1259004/1/105
7. 貝原益軒『大和俗訓』(1708), in the 1911 edition, p. 42. National Diet Library pid 992787, scan 25. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992787/1/25
8. 藤井乙男 編『諺語大辞典』, 1910, 「千里ノ道モ一歩ヨリ起ル」. National Diet Library pid 862766, scan 302. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/302
9. 狂言「入間川」, in 『滑稽諧謔能間狂言全書』, 1918, p. 229. National Diet Library pid 945559, scan 121. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/945559/1/121
10. 晩香散人玉枝子作, 西川祐信画『女朗詠教訓歌』, 1755. National Diet Library pid 2533881, scan 39. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533881/1/39
11. National Diet Library full-text search, 「千里の道も一歩より」, six books of 1876 to 1893, seen as the search shows them: 『養生のすゝめ』, 1876; 『修身訓蒙』, 1883; 『少年教誨』, 1886; 『修身訓』, 1887; 『幼児教訓唱歌』, 1887; 『法華経大意』, 1893. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=千里の道も一歩より
12. 泉本宗三郎 編『ことわざ』, 1889. National Diet Library pid 755532. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/755532
13. 河崎顕了『家庭説教』続, 法蔵館, 1908. National Diet Library pid 818384, scan 71. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/818384/1/71
14. Yokoyama Kendō 横山健堂, 『大将東郷』, 春陽堂, 1915. National Diet Library pid 950830, scan 111. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/950830/1/111
15. 「千里の道も一歩から」, デジタル大辞泉 · 故事成語を知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/千里の道も一歩から-1729075
16. 「千里の行も足下に始まる」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/千里の行も足下に始まる-551444
17. 欲行千里，一步為初: 『楊岐方會和尚語錄』, T47 no. 1994A, p. 642b25; 『圓悟佛果禪師語錄』 1, T47 no. 1997, p. 715b06; 『大慧普覺禪師語錄』 23 and 26, T47 no. 1998A, pp. 909a26 and 924b09; at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/search/kwic?work=T1994A&juan=1&q=欲行千里一步為初
18. John Chalmers, translator, The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality, of "The Old Philosopher," Lau-Tsze, London, Trübner, 1868, p. 50. https://archive.org/details/speculationsonm00laogoog/page/n74
19. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, second edition, 1872, p. 141. National Diet Library pid 993689, scan 88. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/993689/1/88
20. Frederic Henry Balfour, translator, Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political, and Speculative, London, Trübner, and Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, 1884. https://archive.org/details/taoisttextsethic00balf
21. Lionel Giles, translator, The Sayings of Lao Tzŭ, London, The Orient Press, 1904, p. 51. https://archive.org/details/sayingslaotz00gilegoog/page/n53
22. Jennifer Speake, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford University Press, 2015, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".
23. Arthur Waley, translator, The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao Tê Ching and Its Place in Chinese Thought, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1934; read in the Grove Press reprint, New York, undated (Library of Congress card 58-5092), chapter LXIV, p. 221; chapter 64 in a third-party transcription at https://terebess.hu/english/tao/waley.html#Kap64
24. D. C. Lau, translator, Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching, Penguin, 1963, chapter LXIV (Lau's passage 153).
25. Daniel Crump Buchanan, Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965, p. 162.
26. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", Wikipedia (English). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_journey_of_a_thousand_miles_begins_with_a_single_step
27. JMdict (EDRDG), 「千里の道も一歩から」, entry 2577890, and 「千里の行も足下に始まる」, entry 2577880, at gokanji. https://new.gokanji.com/word/千里の道も一歩から

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Sonnet 5 and Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI), 2026-09-05, citations of the history as it stood on that date; a later amendment has not been re-checked · Grok 4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-05, citations of the history as it stood on that date; a later amendment has not been re-checked

Research depth: step 3 of our 10-step ladder, foundation complete · November 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 千里の道も一歩より (senri no michi mo ippo yori)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/senri-no-michi-mo-ippo-yori.