畫蛇添足

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See also: 画蛇添足

Chinese

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draw; picture; painting snake; serpent to add; to increase; to replenish foot; to be sufficient
trad. (畫蛇添足)
simp. (画蛇添足)
Literally: “to add feet drawing a snake”.

Etymology

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From Annals of the Warring States:

:「不足有餘飲酒。」左手:「。」:「?」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
:「不足有余饮酒。」左手:「。」:「?」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Zhanguo Ce, circa 5th – 3rd centuries BCE
Chǔ yǒu cí zhě, cì qí shè rén zhī jiǔ, shè rén xiāng wèi yuē: “Shù rén yǐn zhī bùzú, yī rén yǐn zhī yǒuyú, qǐng huà dì wéi shé, xiān chéng zhě yǐnjiǔ.” Yī rén shé xiān chéng, yǐn jiǔ qiě yǐn zhī, nǎi zuǒshǒu chí zhī, yòu shǒu huà shé yuē: “Wú néng wéi zhī .” Wèi chéng, yī rén zhī shé chéng, duó qí zhī yuē: “Shé gù wú , zǐ ān néng wéi zhī ?” Suì yǐn qí jiǔ. Wéi shé zhě, zhōng wáng qí jiǔ. [Pinyin]
Once, there was a host of a sacrificial ceremony in Chu. He gave a jug of wine to his servants. The servants discussed with each other, saying: “This jug of wine is not enough for all of us to drink, but abundant for one of us to drink. We'll all draw a snake on the ground, with the one who draws the fastest getting the wine.” One man finished first. He grabbed the wine jug and was about to drink. Holding the jug of wine in his left hand, he said: “I can draw feet for the snake.” and started drawing the feet with his right hand. Before he had finished drawing the feet, another man finished drawing his snake, snatched the wine and said: "A snake actually has no feet, how can you draw feet on a snake?" Then, he drank the wine. The one who added feet to the snake lost the wine in the end.

Pronunciation

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Idiom

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畫蛇添足

  1. (figurative, derogatory) to improve something unnecessarily; to gild the lily

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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Sino-Xenic (畫蛇添足):

Others: