put the trivial above the important
As a Chinese idiom, the Pinyin is Xu á NTU ó Ji ù sh í, which means more effort, less benefit. From Fayuan Zhulin.
The origin of Idioms
It is recorded in Volume 66 of Fayuan Zhulin that someone got a dead camel, which was too blunt to peel. There is a sharpening stone upstairs, so it takes a lot of trouble to sharpen the knife upstairs, peel it downstairs, and go back and forth.
Idiom usage
It refers to being stupid.
Idiom story
In ancient times, someone got a dead camel. He wanted to skin the camel, but he didn't think the knife was blunt. There was a sharpening stone upstairs, so he went upstairs to sharpen his knife for a while, went downstairs to peel it for a while, and went back and forth, which was very troublesome. In order to sharpen the knife nearby, he did not move the sharpening stone down, but tried his best to hang the dead camel upstairs to peel it.
Chinese PinYin : xuán tuó jiù shí
put the trivial above the important
narrate anecdotes of the past in alluding to the present. jiè gǔ yù jīn
be of noble character and high prestige. dé zūn wàng zhòng
failure to put things away properly is inviting theft. màn cáng huì dào
Playing with the year and the moon. wán suì yī yuè
pretend to be ignorant of sth.. zhuāng lóng zuò yǎ
appear to be tough outwardly , be timid inwardly. sè lì nèi rěn