揠苗助長

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Chinese

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eradicate; pull up
sprout; seedling; descendant
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

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From Mencius (《孟子·公孫丑上》):

芒芒然:「今日。」,苗 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
芒芒然:「今日。」,苗 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Mencius, c. 4th century BCE, translated based on James Legge's version
Sòng rén yǒu mǐn qí miáo zhī bù zhǎng ér zhī zhě, mángmángrán guī. Wèi qí rén yuē: “Jīnrì bìng yǐ, yú zhù miáo zhǎng yǐ.” Qí zǐ qū ér wǎng shì zhī, miáo zé gǎo yǐ. [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.

Pronunciation

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Idiom

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揠苗助長

  1. (figurative) to be hasty and use inappropriate methods in order to achieve a goal quickly, but by doing so ruin things instead and fail in the end

Synonyms

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