put fine timber to petty use(dà cái xiǎo yòng)

put fine timber to petty use

It is a Chinese idiom. Pinyin is d à C á IXI à oy à ng, which means to use large materials for small purposes. It refers to improper use of talents. It comes from Xu Chao Lun by Shi Chong of Jin Dynasty.

The origin of Idioms

According to Xu Chao Lun by Shi Chong of Jin Dynasty, "if the sage is in power, the group of talents will be promoted, and the officials will be able to be appointed. If the great responsibility is ready, the great talents will not be restrained, and the small talents will not be placed in the small position. If the small talents have been extremely divided, they will not be placed in the position of excessive talents for a long time."

Idiom usage

This paper discusses the relationship between the subject and the predicate, the object and the attribute, and the improper arrangement of personnel. Song · Lu You's poem "send Xin You'an palace to make a dynasty"

Analysis of Idioms

The eight immortals table covers the wine jar; the big purlin makes the stick and hammer; the big pine tree makes the firewood; the eighth five year plan shoots the flies; the hundred year old pine tree makes the firewood; the big axe cuts the branches; the big liang Zhen makes the civilized stick; Pang Tong becomes the county magistrate; the marble presses the pickle jar; the big vertical cabinet holds the coal ball; the big bamboo box makes the wine jar; Big guns for mosquitoes; big pines for firewood; really cool for rags; electric poles for chopsticks; electric poles for fishing; electric poles for matchsticks; top bars for needles; anti-aircraft guns for mosquitoes; iron rods for embroidery needles

Idioms and allusions

Pang Tong

After Zhou Yu died, Lu Su recommended Pang Tong to Sun Quan, but Sun Quan didn't use him. Lu Su recommended Pang Tong to Liu Bei. Liu Bei saw that he was ugly, so he arranged for him to be the magistrate of Leiyang county. Pang Tong was not happy and wanted to impress Liu Bei with his talent. Seeing Zhuge Liang's absence, he had to say goodbye. After that, he spent all his time drinking. Liu Bei heard that Pang Tong ignored political affairs and made fun of drinking all day long. In a rage, he ordered Zhang Fei to visit Jingnan. Zhang Fei went with sun Qian. Pang Tong didn't come out to meet him. Pang Tong's colleagues told Zhang Fei how Pang Tong ignored political affairs. Zhang Fei is furious and wants to capture Pang Tong. Sun Qian advised him to see Pang Tong and punish him not later. When Zhang Fei saw Pang Tong, he drank a lot. He abandoned all kinds of affairs in the county. Pang Tong, however, thinks that it's all small things. As a result, he only takes half a day to deal with all the affairs of this month. Zhang Fei admires him and recommends him to Liu Bei. Later generations have evolved Pang Tong's allegorical sayings as county magistrate. In fact, Pang Tong did serve as a county magistrate, and he was not very good at it, but he did not spend half a day solving the problem of government affairs for a month. Later, he was removed from office (because he was not good at it). Lu Su wrote to Liu Bei and told him that Pang Tong was not suitable to be a county magistrate. He should be a governor of China and a driver of other countries. After that, Pang Tong's performance was really excellent. But the former allegorical saying is absolutely not true. Even though Pang Tong really has the ability to solve the problem of one month in half a day, this story shows that he has great ambition and goes deep into the world. It's not overkill.

Xin Qiji

Xin Qiji, a famous patriotic poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, whose father died in his childhood and was raised by his grandfather. Xin Qiji once worshipped Liu Zhan, a famous pastoral poet at that time, as his teacher, and his fellow party huaiying was Liu Zhan's most proud student. Once, Liu Zhan asked them, "Confucius once asked students to talk about their aspirations, and I'll ask you what you are going to do in the future." Dang huaiying replied, "reading is for the sake of being an official, for the sake of gaining fame and honor. I must go to the imperial court to be a senior official. If I can't be an official, I will go home to live in seclusion and write pastoral poems like a teacher. " Liu Zhan was very happy to hear that and praised him repeatedly. He thought that his ambition was very noble. But Xin Qiji replied, "I don't want to be an official. I want to write all the thieves in the world with words and kill all the thieves in the world with sword." Liu Zhan was surprised and asked Xin Qiji not to say such absurd words again in the future. Since then, Xin Qiji and Dang had a very different way of life: Xin Qiji bravely devoted himself to the National Battlefield against Jin, and was famous for his patriotic ci poetry; while Dang huaiying mingled with the ruling group of Jin people and did some work for them. After the Jin people invaded the south, Xin Qiji organized a team of more than 2000 people to revolt in his hometown. Later, he led the team to join the uprising army organized by Geng Jing, a farmer of Jinan government. Soon after, the rebel army accepted the appointment of the imperial court and cooperated with the imperial army to fight against the Jin army. However, due to the exclusion and attack of the capitulationists, Xin Qiji lived in Shangrao, Jiangxi Province for a long time. In the spring of 1203, he was appointed governor of Shaoxing Prefecture and pacifier of Zhejiang East Road. This year, Xin Qiji was 64 years old. There is a place called Sanshan in the western suburb of Shaoxing, where Lu You, a famous patriotic poet, lived. Lu you was 15 years older than Xin Qiji. At that time, he was almost 80 years old. His patriotic poems had long been admired by Xin Qiji. Therefore, soon after Xin Qiji took office, he went to visit this elder. They discussed national affairs together and hated each other. After listening to Xin Qiji's analysis of the situation and his vision of unification and the whole country, Lu you thinks that he is a very talented person and hopes that he will succeed in his career. In the spring of the next year, Emperor ningzong of the Song Dynasty issued an imperial edict to ask Xin Qiji to go to Lin'an, the capital city, for his opinions on the northern expedition to the kingdom of Jin. " Xin Qiji tells Lu you about it. Lu you feels that this is a good opportunity for Xin Qiji to show his talents and is happy for him. In order to encourage Xin Qiji to develop his talent, Lu you wrote a long poem and presented it to him. The poem says, "Xin Qiji is a first-class figure of Guan Zhong and Xiao He, a great statesman and strategist in ancient times. Now when he is a pacifier on the East Zhejiang Road, he really uses the big materials in the small places. He is encouraged to work hard for the restoration of the Central Plains, and he should never mind being excluded. At the age of 68, this patriotic hero, who was always overqualified, finally died in anger.

Side to side

There is a story in the tenth chapter of the romance of the Three Kingdoms. It is said that Cao Cao's father Cao song was killed by Tao Qian. Cao Cao swore to avenge his father and led the army to Xuzhou. Bian, the Jiujiang prefect, gave Tao Qian his way. When he heard that Xuzhou was in trouble, he brought 5000 soldiers to rescue him. Cao Cao was so angry that Xia Houdun intercepted him on the road. Bian rang is the protagonist of the idiom "overqualified". In history, it was true that Cao Cao killed Bian rang, but the time and plot were different from those in the romance of the Three Kingdoms. Bian rang, the word Wen Li, Chen Liu Ren, is now Kaifeng people. Bian rang, who was eloquent and knowledgeable when he was very young, is most famous for his work Zhang Hua Fu. emperor Liu Hong of the Han Dynasty made Princess he the queen and made his half brother he Jin the general. When he Jin heard about bianrang's fame and talent, he wanted to recruit him as an official. But he was afraid that bianrang would not come. He called bianrang to Luoyang in the name of conscription and appointed him to be an official. He Jin thought that he had done a good job in this matter, but he did not expect that it caused the dissatisfaction of Cai Yong, a great poet and calligrapher at that time. Cai Yong thought that the officials who gave way to Bian were too small! Cai Yong found he Jin and said that this Bian rang was very lonely when he was a child, but he was smart and eager to learn. He learned from the classics of various schools of thought and could draw inferences from one instance. This man has a good mind and is a rare talent. If the tripod is used to cook a chicken, it's not suitable. If the soup is too much, it's insipid; if the soup is too little, it's not cooked. Let Bian let dangling Shi, is the so-called "big weapon for small use", I hope the general can give him a chance to show his talent. Later, he Jin let Bian rang be Jiujiang Prefecture. at that time, the whole court was in chaos. Bianrang felt that it was really boring to be an official in such an environment. Later, he simply quit his official position and went home to study. But how can a talented person have no opinion of society? Bian rang looked down upon Cao Cao, the rising hero, and often scolded him on different occasions. Later, someone complained to Cao Cao. Cao Cao was so proud that he could not be said that? So he arranged for the local officials to arrest and kill Bian.

Chinese PinYin : dà cái xiǎo yòng