Etymology

let a thousand flowers bloom

Today it means: One should not interfere with promising developments in their early stages. Full definition →

Chinese 百花齊放，百家爭鳴 /百花齐放，百家争鸣
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The story

  1. Chinese · calque of百花齊放，百家爭鳴 /百花齐放，百家争鸣
  2. English todaylet a thousand flowers bloom

A calque of Chinese 百花齊放，百家爭鳴 /百花齐放，百家争鸣 (bǎihuā-qífàng, bǎijiā-zhēngmíng) ("let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend"), from various speeches made by Mao Zedong during the 1950s.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.