卧薪尝胆

卧薪尝胆 [wò xīn cháng dǎn]

1. ■ sleep on the brushwood [sticks] and taste the gall -- to nurse vengeance; endure hardships to accomplish some ambition; eat [swallow] the leek; (For days) I have lain, as it were, upon thorns, and my mouth filled with gall.; lie on faggots and taste gall -- undergo self-imposed hardships so as to strengthen one's resolve to wipe out a national humiliation; put up with an insult in order to take revenge; stoop to conquer [win]:

他卧薪尝胆， 图谋报复。 He endured hardships to plan retaliation.