Chinese Idiom: Pull Shoots to Help Them Grow (Ba Miao Zhu Zhang)

Synopsis

Ba Miao Zhu Zhang is a Chinese idiom meaning to ruin things by being impatient, from a story of a farmer who pulled up his seedlings to make them grow faster.

The Story

The idiom Pull Shoots to Help Them Grow comes from Mencius. A farmer in the state of Song was impatient with how slowly his seedlings were growing. So he pulled each seedling up a little to make them taller. After a long day's work, he told his family: I am exhausted today, but I helped the seedlings grow! His son ran to the field and found that all the seedlings had withered and died.

Definition

Moral

This idiom teaches us that we must follow objective laws when doing things. Being impatient and going against natural processes only makes things worse.

References

1. Baidu Baike: Ba Miao Zhu Zhang
2. ZDIC: Chinese Dictionary
3. Mencius