neglecting the main point(bó shì mǎi lǘ)

neglecting the main point

Doctor bought a donkey, a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is B ó sh ì m ǎ IL ǘ, which means that the doctor bought a donkey, wrote three contracts, and did not have a word "donkey"; he satirized that the article was too long to say the point. It comes from Yan's family precepts mianxue.

Idiom explanation

Doctor: ancient official name.

The origin of Idioms

In Yan Zhitui's family precepts mianxue of the Northern Qi Dynasty, "Ye Xia said," if a doctor buys a donkey, there are three books and three certificates, but there is no word for donkey. "

Idiom story

In the chapter of mianxue in Yan's family instructions, there is a joke about a doctor buying donkeys, which he heard when he went to Yecheng to do business. at that time, there was a doctor who was familiar with four books and five classics. He is very appreciative of himself. He has to be very literal in everything he does. One day, a donkey of the doctor's family died, so he went to the market to buy one. After the two sides agreed on the price, the doctor asked the seller to write a certificate. The donkey seller said that he was illiterate and asked the doctor to write for him. The doctor agreed immediately. The donkey seller immediately borrowed pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and the doctor immediately began to write. He wrote very carefully. It took a long time for the three pieces of paper to be written. The donkey seller asked the doctor to read it to him. With a dry cough, the doctor shook his head and read it. Passers-by gathered around to listen. It took a long time for the doctor to finish his study. After hearing this, the donkey seller asked him, "Sir, you have written three sheets of paper. How come you don't even have a donkey? In fact, as long as I write down how much I sold you a donkey on a certain day and month, it will be over. Why do you write so much nagging? " All the people who watched laughed. After the story spread, someone made up a few ironic Proverbs: "if a doctor buys a donkey, there will be three books, but no donkey." later, many people described that writing articles or speeches was not to the point. Although they wrote a large article and talked a lot, they were far away from the topic. They called it "the doctor bought a donkey" or "three papers without a donkey", which is the so-called "writing a thousand words, leaving a thousand miles away from the topic".

The meaning of Idioms

"Doctors buy donkeys" tells us a simple truth: work for the text, should be concise and clear, let people read that understand, listen to that. In particular, the following should be more concise and vigorous. However, in reality, many leading cadres' speeches at meetings are still empty talk. In some places, there are numerous documents and meetings. "Wenshan Huihai" has become a kind of common organ disease that can not be cured for a long time. Fortunately, some places began to wake up and made up their minds to take drastic measures to deal with this situation. In May 2011, Wujiang City of Jiangsu Province issued a document. According to the document, "the number of words to be printed and distributed is generally not more than 5000, the number of words to be printed and distributed is generally not more than 3000, and the number of words to be printed and distributed is generally not more than 1500. The city wide work conference held in the name of a department is only allowed to be held once a year. The meeting staff should generally be controlled at 10% of the formal participants. There is no special need. Only one leader is arranged to make a keynote speech at each meeting. The speech generally does not exceed 40 minutes, and the speech at the meeting is controlled within 10 minutes (according to the city express on July 29), "the new regulation of Wujiang in Jiangsu Province has been widely concerned by the media, and many newspapers and periodicals have provided comments to affirm this practice. It can be seen that "Wenshan Huihai" is deeply poisonous and abhorrent. It is widely expected that we should move "Wenshan" and fill in "Huihai", change the style of work and improve administrative efficiency. But "the doctor buys a donkey" is unpopular.

Chinese PinYin : bó shì mǎi lǘ