Bul-cheol-ju-ya

不

아닐 불

撤

거둘 철

晝

낮 주

夜

밤 야

Character by character

Meaning

Neither day nor night set aside — working straight through without pause.

Origin

From the Analects, where Confucius watches a river and says the current never stops, day or night. Korean usage swapped one character.

How it is used

Said of someone who worked round the clock against a deadline.

Hanja不撤晝夜

Simplified不撤昼夜

Korean reading불철주야

Pinyinbù chè zhòu yè

Frequently asked questions

Q. What does Bul-cheol-ju-ya mean?

不撤晝夜 · Neither day nor night set aside — working straight through without pause.

Q. Where does Bul-cheol-ju-ya come from?

From the Analects, where Confucius watches a river and says the current never stops, day or night. Korean usage swapped one character.

Q. How is Bul-cheol-ju-ya used?

Said of someone who worked round the clock against a deadline.

Idioms in the same group

愚公移山 U-gong-i-sanOld Man Yu moves the mountain — persistence accomplishes anything.磨斧作針 Ma-bu-jak-chimGrind an axe into a needle — dogged effort achieves even the impossible.螢雪之功 Hyeong-seol-ji-gongMerit earned reading by fireflies and snow-light — study achieved in hardship.切齒腐心 Jeol-chi-bu-simGrinding your teeth and letting your heart rot — nursing a grievance.臥薪嘗膽 Wa-sin-sang-damSleep on firewood and taste gall — endure any hardship to settle a score.不眠不休 Bul-myeon-bul-hyuNeither sleeping nor resting — pouring everything into one task.

The idioms used in Korea mix phrases from the Chinese classics with ones coined in Korea. Where an expression is not used in China, the entry says so.