As precious legacies of traditional Chinese culture, Chinese idioms come from stories recorded in many famous classics. Many learned and wise scholars like to use these types of stories and the morals we draw from them to educate their disciples. The Chinese idiom helping the shoots grow by pulling them upward, ba2 miao2 zhu4 zhang3 (拔苗助长in Chinese), was once cited by a renowned ancient Chinese educator. You can hire a Chinese language teacher online skype to learn more detailed information about him. 

Mencius, a philosopher of the Confucius School, once recorded the thoughts of Men Ke, a famous educator in the Warring States Period (403 B.C.-201 B.C.). His thoughts consisted of political activities, political doctrines and philosophical ethnics. The Chinese idiom helping the shoots grow by pulling them upward, ba2 miao2 zhu4 zhang3 (拔苗助长in Chinese) is collected in that classic.

The story this idiom comes from goes like this. A long time ago, a farmer lived in the State of Song. He was very worried about the growth of his rice shoots and he never got bored watching his crop every day. However, he found the rice shoots in his crop didn’t grow for days on end. Filled with anxiety, he was going back and forth beside his crop. Suddenly, he said to himself, “I must work out a quick method to help my rice shoots sprout.”  You can get more details about the story on Online 1on1 mandarin lessons.

One day, he came up with a method at last. He rushed to his crop and pulled each rice shoot up from the ground. He worked hard from morning till the sun set. Finally, he accomplished his “great job” and felt exhausted. When he returned back home, dog-tired as he was, he gasped to his son, “Papa is so tired. Today papa helped our rice shoots sprout up. It’s not in vain.” Hearing this, his son hurried to their crop and found all the rice shoots died.

Did you predict the result of the story? His rice shoots must surely die with his clever “pulling up”. The famous educator Men Ke cited this story to enlighten his disciples. He wanted them to know that disobeying the natural laws of things’ development could only lead to bad results. The story is very interesting but the implication means a lot. You can learn more interesting Chinese idiom stories through learning Chinese from Chinese teachers.

You may think the story is a little bit ridiculous but it indicates that we should not violate the natural laws of things’ development. An old saying also goes like this, “Haste makes waste.” In general, if we are impatient for success, and just rack our brains to find out shortcuts to succeed, the result will be unsatisfactory.

I would like to leave you with a quote from China’s previous Premier Wen Jiabao which suggests namely that we should have dreams, and work hard to realize our dreams. yang3 wang4 xing1 kong1, jiao3 ta1 shi2 di4 (仰望星空,脚踏实地in Chinese). The honored Premier Wen Jiabao shared these words to encourage us to achieve our goals by working hard, not shortcuts, illegal and immoral ways, or day dreaming. Finally, you can share your ideas on this with your classmates on learning Chinese online classes. Enjoy your Chinese learning!

明鴻
4/24/2018 10:58:33 pm

謝謝、很有幫助!

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