铁杵磨针，汉语成语，拼音是tiě chǔ mó zhēn ，比喻只要有决心，肯下工夫，多么难的事情也能做成功。出自南宋祝穆的《方舆胜览》。
Tiechu grinding a needle is a Chinese idiom. The pinyin is tiě chǔ mó zhēn. As long as you have determination and work hard, you can succeed in difficult things. From “Fang Yu Sheng Lan” by Zhu Mu in the Southern Song Dynasty.
成语故事
唐朝有一个著名的大诗人叫李白，在他小的时候，不喜欢念书，常常逃学，到街上去闲逛。为此，他的母亲没少训斥他。
有一天，李白又没有去上学，在街上闲逛着，不觉到了城外。暖和的阳光、欢快的小鸟、随风摇摆的花草使李白感叹不已，“大好的天气，如果整天在屋里读书多没意思？”
走着走着，在一个破茅屋门口，坐着一个满头白发的老婆婆，正在磨一根棍子般粗的铁杵。李白走过去，很奇怪地问：“老婆婆，您在做什么？”
“我要把这根铁杵磨成一个绣花针。”老婆婆抬起头，对李白笑了笑，接着又低下头继续磨着。
“绣花针？”李白又问：“是缝衣服用的绣花针吗？”
“当然！”
“可是，铁杵这么粗，什么时候能磨成细细的绣花针呢？”
老婆婆反问李白：“滴水可穿石，愚公能移山，铁杵为什么不能磨成绣花针？”
“可是，您的年纪这么大了？”
“只要我下的功夫比别人深，没有做不到的事情。”
老婆婆的一番话，令李白很惭愧，于是回去之后，每天的学习都特别用功。后来，他博览群书，勤奋苦读，终于有了一番成就。他二十多岁起，为了增长见识，到各地游历。他不仅到过长安、洛阳、金陵、江都许多大城，还到过洞庭、庐山、会稽等许多名山胜地。由于他见识广博，加上才智过人，因此，他在诗歌写作上有了杰出的成就。后世的人们因为他在诗歌方面的杰出成就，都称他为“诗仙”。
Idiom story
There was a famous poet named Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty. When he was young, he didn’t like to study. He often played truant and went to the streets to hang out. For this, his mother repeatedly scolded him.
One day, Li Bai didn’t go to school again. He was wandering in the street, and he realized that he was outside the city. The warm sunshine, the cheerful birds, and the flowers and plants swaying in the wind made Li Bai sigh, “If the weather is good, it would be boring to read a house all day?”
Walking and walking, at the door of a broken hut, sitting an old woman with white hair, who was grinding a stick-thick iron pestle. Li Bai walked over and asked strangely: “Old woman, what are you doing?”
“I want to grind this iron pestle into an embroidery needle.” The old woman raised her head, smiled at Li Bai, and then lowered her head to continue grinding.
“Embroidery needle?” Li Bai asked again: “Is it an embroidery needle for sewing clothes?”
“of course!”
“But, the iron pestle is so thick, when can it be ground into fine embroidery needles?”
The old woman asked Li Bai: “Drips of water can wear stones, and a fool can move mountains. Why can’t Tiechu be ground into embroidery needles?”
“But, how old are you?”
“As long as I work harder than others, there is nothing I can’t do.”
What the old woman said made Li Bai very ashamed, so after returning home, she worked very hard every day in her studies. Later, he read a lot of books, studied hard, and finally made some achievements. Since he was in his twenties, in order to increase his knowledge, he has traveled all over the world. He has not only been to many big cities in Chang’an, Luoyang, Jinling, and Jiangdu, but also many famous mountain resorts such as Dongting, Lushan, and Kuaiji. Because of his extensive knowledge and extraordinary talents, he has made outstanding achievements in poetry writing. People in later generations called him “the fairy of poetry” because of his outstanding achievements in poetry.