揠苗助長

Chinese

eradicate; pull up
 
sprout; seedling; descendant; symptom of a trend; young; vaccine; Miao tribe
trad. (揠苗助長) 助長
simp. (揠苗助长) 助长

Etymology

芒芒然:「今日。」
天下以為無益非徒無益
[Classical Chinese, trad.][▼ expand/hide]
芒芒然:“今日。”
天下以为无益非徒无益
[Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Mencius, circa 4th century BCE
Sòng rén yǒu mǐn qí miáo zhī bù zhǎng ér zhī zhě, mángmángrán guī. Wèi qí rén yuē: “Jīnrì bìng yǐ, yǔ zhù miáo zhǎng yǐ.” Qí zǐ qū ér wǎng shì zhī, miáo zé gǎo yǐ.
Tiānxià zhī bù zhù miáo zhǎng zhě guǎ yǐ. Yǐwéi wúyì ér shě zhī zhě, bù yún miáo zhě yě; zhù zhī zhǎng zhě, miáo zhě yě. Fēitú wúyì, ér yòu hài zhī.
[Pinyin]
There was a man of Song, who was grieved that his growing corn was not longer, and so he pulled it up. Having done this, he returned home, looking very troubled, and said to his people, “I am tired today. I have been helping the corn to grow long.” His son ran to look at it, and found the corn all withered.
There are few in the world, who do not deal with their passion-nature, as if they were assisting the corn to grow long. Some indeed consider it of no benefit to them, and let it alone ― they do not weed their corn. They who assist it to grow long, pull out their corn. What they do is not only of no benefit to the nature, but it also injures it.

Pronunciation


Idiom

揠苗助長

  1. (figuratively) to spoil things through excessive enthusiasm

Synonyms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.