an ineffectual remedy(yáng tāng zhǐ fèi)

an ineffectual remedy

Yang Tang Zhi boil, a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is y á NGT āǐ f è I, which means to scoop up the boiling water in the pot and then pour it back to make it cool. The metaphor method is not thorough and can not fundamentally solve the problem. It comes from Shangshu admonishing the king of Wu and the biography of Liu Xun in the annals of the Three Kingdoms.

The origin of Idioms

Mei Cheng of Han Dynasty wrote a letter to admonish the king of Wu: "if you want to have a soup, you can cook it by one person and raise it by a hundred people. It's useless. It's better to stop the fire than to stop it." "Three Kingdoms · Wei Shu · biography of Liu Xun" said: "Yang Tang Zhi Fei, so that do not burn rotten."

Idiom usage

For the spiritual rubbish in the society, we can't use the method of raising water to stop boiling, we should solve the problem fundamentally. < / Li > < li > in order to deal with the collective debt recovery of migrant workers by distributing 100 yuan to each person and then severing them, Delong construction company's practice can only make the soup boil, which is of no help to solve the problem.

Idioms and allusions

Liu Zhen was a native of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. Liu Wangzhi, his elder brother, was killed by Liu Biao, the governor of Jingzhou, so he defected to Cao Cao and became a secretary under Cao Cao. Liu was talented and diligent, and was highly valued by Cao Cao and his eldest son Cao Pi. At that time, a man named Wei Xi opposed Cao Cao and attacked him. After being denounced, Cao Cao executed Wei Xi. Liu Wei, Liu Zhen's younger brother, was also killed by Cao Cao for his conspiracy to attack Cao Cao. According to the law at that time, Liu should also be convicted because of his brother's involvement and should be beheaded by his family. However, Cao Cao cherished talents, and at the same time understood that Liu's conduct was fundamentally different from that of his younger brother Liu Wei. According to the examination, Liu had also advised Liu Wei not to contact Wei at that time. Therefore, Cao Cao ordered that Liu Zhen be specially forgiven and not be convicted. Liu Xun was very grateful to Cao Cao. He wrote a letter to Cao Cao for this reason. One paragraph of the letter said: "my sins, for example, should destroy my ancestors and family. Fortunately, you saved my life and the whole family's life by" raising the soup to stop boiling ". Such a great kindness can never be repaid. In the future, I will only work hard for you." "Raise soup to stop boiling" refers to the boiling soup (boiling water) in the broadcasting pot, making it slightly cold and not boiling for the time being. It is a metaphor for ease, urgency and difficulty. But later, when people use it, the original meaning of this idiom has changed. Generally speaking, it means to take emergency measures temporarily, but it can't solve the problem fundamentally, and the way to describe it is not thorough enough.

Chinese PinYin : yáng tāng zhǐ fèi