restrict sb . 's activities to a designated area or sphere(huà dì wéi láo)

restrict sb . 's activities to a designated area or sphere

As a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is Hu à D à w é IL á o, which means metaphor can only be used within a specified scope. It comes from Sima Qian's letter to Ren Shaoqing in Han Dynasty.

The origin of Idioms

In Han Dynasty, Sima Qian's "letter to Ren Shaoqing", it is said that "so scholars have to draw a picture of the land as a prison; they can't enter the situation; they can't cut wood as an official; they can't discuss correctly; they can't make a plan for Xianye."

Idioms and allusions

Allusion 1 it is said that in a long time ago society, people were very self disciplined and moral. If someone made a mistake, they would draw a circle on the ground to restrict him. Even so, even if there was no one around him, he would never walk out of the circle ahead of time. It is said that in ancient times, the criminal law was lenient, drawing a circle on the ground to punish the sinner, such as the prison of future generations. Wuji, a firewood collector, is a filial son. One day he came to Xiqi city to sell firewood. It's at the south gate. I'm on my way to catch up with Shangwang. Because of the narrow market road, when he changed the shoulder of the Chai Dan, he collapsed. When he turned over the shoulder pole, he hit the guard Sergeant Wang Xiang on the ear door, killed him immediately, and was taken to see King Wen. King Wen said: "since Wu Ji killed Wang Xiang, he should have resisted his life." He ordered him to draw a circle on the floor of the south gate to make a cell, erect a piece of wood to be a warder, and shut Wuji up. Three days later, the doctor San Yisheng passed the south gate and saw Wu Ji crying bitterly. He asked him, "it's natural to kill someone. Why are you crying? " Wuji said: "the villain's mother is seventy years old. She has only one child, and she has no wife. She's always alone. She's afraid she'll starve to death!" San Yisheng came to see King Wen in the hall of the city and said, "it's better to let Wu Ji go home first, and then repay the king's life after he has finished supporting his mother. I don't know how? " King Wen approved and let Wuji go home. The metaphor of "painting the earth as a prison" is only allowed to move within a specified scope.

Idiom usage

Although the title is a door of a few willows, a red paper seal, where the law is, no one dares to act arbitrarily. The 34th chapter of biography of children heroes by Wen Kang of Qing Dynasty

Analysis of Idioms

[synonym] to be bound in a cocoon, to paint the land as a prison, and [antonym] to let him gallop and be uninhibited

Chinese PinYin : huà dì wéi láo