reach for what is beyond one 's grasp
Chinese idiom, pronounced h à og à ow à Yu à n, means to pursue too high and too far away from reality. It comes from the biography of Cheng Hao.
Notes on Idioms
Good: like; high: too high; focus: pursuit; far: too far.
The origin of Idioms
According to Cheng Hao's biography, the first biography of Daoism in the history of the Song Dynasty, "the sick scholars are disgusted with the inferiority of the near, but aim for the high and far, and there is no success in death."
Chinese PinYin : hào gāo wù yuǎn
reach for what is beyond one 's grasp
flay the face and wash the heart. gé miàn xǐ xīn
time brings great changes to the world. cāng hǎi sāng tián
the enemy 's courage runs out and ours is high. bǐ jié wǒ yíng
go on talking and laughing as if nothing has happened. tán xiào zì ruò
regular course of official duties. lì xíng chāi shì
when one sees the saddle he thinks of the horse -- one thing leads to another. jiàn ān sī mǎ
touch one deeply in the heart. gǎn shēn fèi fǔ
accumulate evil and later one suffered. jī è yú yāng