draw on butter or carve ice
Chinese idiom, Pinyin is Hu à zh ī L ò UB ī ng, which means painting and carving on solidified oil or ice, once melted, all vanish. The metaphor is futile. From "on salt and iron · special road".
Analysis of Idioms
In vain
The origin of Idioms
In Huan Kuan's on salt and iron, Shulu, Han Dynasty, it is said that "so there is no quality in the interior, but learning from the outside, although there are good teachers and good friends, if you paint fat and carve ice, it will cost you a lot of time."
Idiom usage
Combined; as predicate; with derogatory meaning; metaphor in vain. Examples not if the previous life of a partial person ~, horn useless empty text, but for the ears and eyes of the viewer also. Preface to the collection of Hongqing Jushi and qiaoju
Chinese PinYin : huà zhī lòu bīng
draw on butter or carve ice
display one 's skill to the full. dà xiǎn shēn shǒu
follow up a victory with hot pursuit. chéng shèng zhuī jī
get the opposite of what one wants. shì yǔ yuàn wéi
reach for what is beyond one 's grasp. hào gāo wù yuǎn